2011 holidays

A strange year.  We only took three holidays, which perhaps reflects the economic situation. Cuba in May was horrible, despite there being a few redeeming features! I wanted to visit a communist country before they all vanished from the earth. It was horrible seeing people in such poverty with no way out, until the system's overthrown. It's beginning to collapse, and no doubt in 10 years time will be a thriving capitalist nation, providing the whole world hasn't slipped into permanent depression by then! We are seeing the end of growth and the start of a  new Rail Age, so all is not lost!

In September we visisted Switzerland, ostensibly for a Vagabond Reunion, but we knew few of the people there and they weren't from my generation. After the opening meal we had nothing more to do with it - it seemed terribly disorganised. So the rest of the holiday was BRILLIANT, with trips to Montreux and Gstaad being the highlights. The weather was superb.

In December we visited New York City for five nights, staying in Greenwich Village. Fantastic! We had a great time and saw a different side of the city with visits to the High Line, Roosevelt Island and the Meatpacking District for example. We also had a great day out with a friend from Bristol who's lived out there for years, with a trip to Bear Mountain, a classic US mall and Ramsey, a typical suburban American town (with TWO railway stations!)

redundancy

I've aimed a lot of vitriol at the faltering Occupy middle-class movement, and it's not difficult to explain why. They are trying to present themselves as radical, even sustainable, but in reality they are desperately trying to hang on to the past of plenty, where people like them breezed through life, enjoying free education (often in a useless subject), getting their own home in their twenties and having a job for life, followed by a pension through their dotage. They are so tied up in their middle class world that they've missed the fact that the world is totally changing and leaving them miles behind.

I can write, but sometimes others can write better than I can (and it's so much easier to cut and paste). This is the brilliant Bill Bonner on normality. If you're a member of Occupy you'll probably be far happier not reading this. But for the 99% of you out there that don't have closed minds, here goes ...

*** What if the entire period from the invention of the steam engine to the invention of the internet were not the normal thing, but the abnormal thing?

What if the ‘lost decade’ we have just gone through is actually the mean... the usual... the normal thing? And what if – after nearly three centuries – we have just now reverted to it?

Until about two weeks ago, we thought human beings had only existed for 100,000 years. Now, archaeologists are guessing that we’ve been around as a species for twice as long.

You know what that means? It means that our mean rate of growth – already negligible – is actually only about half what we thought it was. In other words, it took not 99,700 years for humans to invent the steam engine, but 199,700. And now, what if we are not going on to something new, but back to something old? What if the new age is really more like the old age... where growth and progress were unknown.

Let’s see, the typical person in 1750 lived better than the typical person in say 100,000 BC. The person in 100,000 BC lived in a cave or maybe a wigwam. The typical person in 1750 lived in a hovel. There were some great houses too, of course. By the 18th century, humans had been building with arches and columns... and domes... dressed stone with elaborate decoration... for thousands of years. But most people had no access to those monuments. They lived in whatever they could put together – usually of wood or mud.

They lived on what they could grow... with their own hands, or with the help of domesticated draft animals. They hunted wild animals... or got their calories from their own herds and flocks.

The person from 100,000 BC was a hunter-gatherer. But his life was not all bad. At least he got plenty of fresh air and didn’t get caught in traffic jams or have to watch television.

But the progress between 200,000 BC, when mankind is now thought to have emerged... to 1765, when Watt produced his first engine... was extremely slow. In any given year, it was nearly negligible... imperceptible. Over thousands of years there was little progress of any sort, which was reflected in static human populations with static levels of well-being.

Then, after 1765, progress took off like a rocket. Over the next 200 years, the lives of people in the developed countries, and the human population, generally, changed completely.

It took 199,700 years for the human population to go from zero to 125 million. But over the next 250 years it added about six billion people. Every five years, approximately, it added the equivalent of the entire world’s population in 1750. ‘Progress’ made it possible. People had much more to eat. Better sanitation. Better transportation (which eliminated famines, by making it possible to ship large quantities of food into areas where crops had failed). The last major famine in Western Europe occurred in the 18th century when crops failed. After that, the famines in the developed world at least have been intentional – caused largely by government policies.

Progress abolished hunger. It permitted huge increases in population. And it brought rising real wages and rising standards of living.

By the late 20th century, people took progress and GDP growth for granted. Governments went into debt, depending on future growth to pull them out. So did corporations and households. Everyone counted on growth. Spending and tax policies were based on encouraging growth. The enormous growth in government itself was made possible by economic growth. After all, as we’ve seen in our Theory of Government, beyond the essentials, government is either parasitic or superfluous. The richer the host economy, the more government you get.

Today, there is hardly a stock, bond, municipal plan, government budget, student loan, retirement programme, housing development, business plan, political campaign, health care programme or insurance company that doesn’t rely on growth. Everybody expects growth to resume... after we have put this crisis behind us.

Growth is normal, they believe.

But what if it isn’t normal? What if it was a once-in-a-centi-millenium event, made possible by cheap energy?

the last gasps ....

If you still have any doubt that the world's oil is fast running out, the fact that even the UK may attempt to use oil produced from the Canadian Tar Sands - the most uneconomic, damaging to the environment and, frankly, CRAZY oil that has been or ever will be produced, should make it clear!

We have tied our econmies to oil, a dirty and finite resource that is now reaching its end, rather than making the infrastrucure changes (rail travel, renewables, either abandoning or rail-connecting the suburbs) governments are burying their heads in the sand and trying to keep things the way they were. This is not only stupid and dishonest, but extremely dangerous. If we don't start redesigning our societies NOW we will be leaving future generations living in extreme poverty, environmental destruction and violent climate change. Do you really want your kids and their kids to inherit this legacy, when we ALL know what needs doing?

Please read the following and act accordingly. Remember that the change from oil to post-oil requires that we use the remaining oil to help make these changes. The fact that many of us still think it's okay to waste this resource DRIVING to out of town shopping areas to buy more tat (made with oil!) shows that the government needs to take the lead. In this at least we are too dim or too selfish to think of anyone else!

This morning 50 Greenpeace activists are blockading the Department for Transport with two immobilised cars parked in front of the entrances and a giant handshake. Our government is trying to scupper legislation that will block tar sands oil - the dirtiest, most polluting form of oil there is - from being sold at UK petrol pumps.

Mining for tar sands is wrecking the Canadian boreal forest, destroying the homelands of indigenous people, and accelerating dangerous climate change.

So why then is the UK government trying to sabotage legislation that would block tar sands oil from European petrol pumps? Well it looks like they've been lobbied hard by the Canadian government and big oil. Now it's your turn to lobby.

Please write to Nick Clegg: he needs to tell the ministry for transport to stop standing in the way of green legislation. It's time Clegg acted on the green credentials he keeps talking about.

The tar sands deposits of heavy oil mixed with clay and sand lie below the surface of the Canadian wilderness. To extract the tar, oil companies destroy the Canadian boreal forest, gouge out hundreds of metres of top soil, and turn the landscape into a gaping black pit. Two tonnes of earth has to be dug up and processed to produce each barrel of tar sands oil.

Worst of all, tar sands oil creates three times the emissions per barrel that you would get from normal crude. There's no way tar sands oil makes any sense for our environment or climate.

Next week, officials will meet from across Europe to approve the plan that would prevent tar sands oil from ending up at the pumps. If the proposal goes ahead it would deal a major blow to oil industry plans to expand Canada's tar sands open cast mining operations.

Right now the vote could go either way because of the UK-led diplomatic effort to scupper it. That's why we need your help to put pressure on the government to stop its attempts to scupper the legislation.

Please join the lobby for legislation to block tar sands from Europe and write to Nick Clegg today.

lack of focus

Amazing that the Occupy protest in Bristol is STILL going on.

There is one HUGE problem with Occupy, and it is the reason that the whole thing is falling apart. They have stupidly aligned themselves with the left. The left has a TINY amount of support in the UK, about 1%. So the Occupy movement is doomed from the start for this reason.

And why has Occupy aligned itself with the left? I suspect it is because of the total lack of imagination of the people behind this. They really do believe that this is some sort of crisis of capitalism when the opposite is of course true. The bail out of banks and car companies, insurance and finance set ups was 100% SOCIALIST, in a peculair attempt tp preserve jobs and ailing businesses. Capitalism would never allow this. For capitalism to progress, and if nothing else it is a fantastically progressive economic system, companies that are failing HAVE to close, so that new, leaner businesses can take their place. This is in reality the SECOND CRISIS OF SOCIALISM (the first was the collapse of the Soviet Union of course).

So what Occupy are proposing is more of the same thing that has caused the situation in the first place! This makes them probably the most reactionary and pointless 'protesters' ever seen.

In reality of course there is already a quiet evolution going on as we are faced with zero or falling growth and the end of cheap oil. The true evolutionaries are all involved at different levels in this process. Whether it's restoring closed railways, pushing permaculture, starting cooperatives, building and installing alternative energy set ups, relearning old craft skills or starting community initiatives.

I suspect you've seen the danger here. Believe it or not once, back in the eighties, the Green Party was a genuinely radical party, yet today it is just a watered down version of New Labour, with a tiny patina of green awareness. Result - all the radicals and progressives left. Some of us kept going with proper projects (such as the New S&D), others probably left politics altogether. I have heard that some in Transition are trying to set up a dialogue with Occupy - this would be a disaster if it happened. Occupy's agenda has nothing to do with the future, it is firmly set in old politics (socialism/communism) and assumes that there will always be a strong nanny state providing jobs from cradle to grave (so 1950s!). Occupy is the last fling of the old fogeys, the Empire Loyalists, New Labour, One Nation Tories, the BNP, every half thought out, of it's time, lack of vision 'movement' that was in reality just an agenda thing for a tiny minority interest group.

If Transition, or any other progressive movement, gets tainted by association with Occupy - which will be a laughing stock everywhere within months - it will be finished, which isn't fair.

To conclude, Occupy is simply a last gasp of the old world, a nostalgic hankering back for the big welfare state of the post war time of plenty, a fan club for the Baby Boomers, cornucopians who will refuse to get their hands dirty - in short the chaff that will not survive Peak Oil.

Harsh I know, but can anyone actually prove otherwise?

this is what Occupy want to preserve ...

 It is astonishing how the supermarkets shun locally grown food - even when it's readily available.

Local, seasonal food is healthy, cheap and environmentally-friendly. It supports British growers and reduces air-miles.

But in a survey by the Independent last year, researchers took 10 foods that were grown in the UK. They found seven major supermarket chains were importing these foods from as far away as South America.

Asda sold asparagus from Peru, strawberries from Spain and cauliflower from France. Marks & Spencer sold beans from Guatemala and broccoli from Spain.

These were foods that were in season in the UK!

It all comes down to costs and sales. It's better for supermarkets to buy some imports because of cheap overseas labour. If their customers keep buying this stuff instead of the local version, there's no reason for them to change.

This is an example of how we should be leading the supermarkets, not the other way round. After all they're not charities or environmental agencies - they're just businesses trying to make money.

So it's up to us to use our purses and wallets to make them change - force them to deliver what we want.

a working class view on too thick to fail

The middle class bone idle 'protestors' currently infecting St Pauls and various other locations around the world - generously paid for by US, the taxpayers - are a very tightly-knit bunch of upper middle class low achievers who live only to cause trouble and are selfish to a point beyond psychosis.

They won't listen to me, as being working class I am an untermensch, a subhuman. The Nazi philosophy behind this 'movement' is sickening. They are classist, racist, authoritarian and ambitious for power over the rest of us. They are opportunist thugs, a blend of the SA and the Bullendon Club. They DARE to try to lump us in with them, disgustingly calling us (and they doubtless include me - and you - in this) the 99%. For we must ALL be the same, think as one.

They blame the wrong target - the idiot bankers who are the biggest beneficiaries of this horrible socialism every western government has been practising for years, rather than the governments themselves, and their thoughtless supporters.

Now, the solution. Empty these Waitrose refugee camps, by force if necessary. They bring shame on us all. Take the details of all the participants and their supporters, stop their benefits, and deport any that don't belong. Send the remaining ones to compulsory lessons on economics and capitalism, and give each of them seed capital (as a loan) to start a business. Let them understand Peak Oil and Climate Change (two terms I doubt any of them have ever heard) so they can see just how difficult the future will be. Educate these idiots, so they can become valuable members of society, rather than the dregs.

And will they listen? Of course not. I'm working class, this is nothing to do with me. This is middle class types playing games with other middle class types, the real 99%. It's up to the 1%, the working class, the artists, writers, professionals, craftsmen, businesspeople etc, to sort this mess out.

post-capitalist living

In their breathtaking hubris the 'Too Thick to Fail' zombies are offering the following course to the bone idle middle class chumps that form 100% of the miserable campers.

POST CAPITALIST LIVING

Remember that after capitalism you will be required to live where we say, do the work we say and share your house with others.

Remember that state controlled food supply can be VERY chaotic, so try to grow some fruit and vegetables in the tiny part of your garden that we allow you to keep. However do not under any circumstances attempt to sell any produce, as this will be illegal.

If you have a business close it immediately. We are NOT interested in people that can stand on their own two feet, earn foreign exchange (money is wrong!) or live free of state benefits.

You will be required to join one of the armed services and fight for your fatherland if capitalists threaten our country.

Have any pets destroyed as they are decadent and capitalist.

Trash your environment. Care of the environment is a decadent capitalist trait and will NOT be tolerated. Socialism decrees that EVERY natural resource is to be exploited and depleted - there will be no opposition to this.

JOIN the party, which will be the only one allowed. Otherwise your career will stall and your life, and those of your family and friends, will be in danger.

Destroy all decadent art, music and literature. There is no room for beauty or art in the post capitalist future.

SMILE at all times. You are FREE. Remember you are one of the 99%, the proletariat. The 1%, those old comrades  of the Occupy Movement, will be the elite.

wanted - robomen!

WANTED - ROBOMEN

We are seeking men and women who are prepared to do exactly what we ask, who will not question authority, who will be like everyone else, who do not think.

We offer superb tented accomodation, central city locations, no need to wash, chance of a good fight.

Intelligent, educated, free-thinking people need NOT apply.

Apply to 'Too Thick to Fail'

c/o St Pauls Cathedral

LONDON

Uniforms (hats, matted jackets, combat trousers, bovver boots) provided.

Unpaid as we do not believe in money.

Applications are NOT wanted from working class people, people who have not been to university, supporters of capitalism, the most successful economic system ever invented.

foggy thinking

The thinking behind the 'Too Thick to Fail' 'occupations, otherwise known as 'Occupy' is a bit of a mystery to normal people.

I read blogs and newsletters from a whole range of political types, from stodgy seventies Stalinism, through progressive right wing business orientated blogs to environmental and Peak Oil sites.

The best answer I've had yet is that this is a result of two things - rampant consumerism and a sense of entitlement to stuff, and a boom in university attendance on courses that don't actually teach any marketable skills.

So you have a big mass of 'middle class' types, who are middle class more through their aspirations, tastes and expectation of an extremely wealthy lifestyle, rather than because of their economic status, many of whom also have or are taking degrees in subjects that had little relevance even back in the growth times, let alone now, when growth is finished.

So this is an extremely middle class 'revolt'. These people were brought up by well-meaning parents to expect the future would be cosy, full of material things, drizzled with classical music, experimental theatre and super friends, in a world that would just get wealthier and wealthier. Their parents were idiots, and their little Aramintas and Lukes are the ones paying the price.

So what do they want? Well for one they want all the trappings of capitalism - mobile phones, stereos, cars, designer clothes, but they don't want capitalism to provide it, because through their perusal of Nazi anti-capitalist diatribes and foul cartoons (depicting capitalists as top-hat wearing, Jewish featured elderly men) they have a totally wrong image of capitalism and capitalists.

So they've turned to a failed system - socialism - which could never provide anything like capitalism did, destroyed the environment, destroyed freedom of thought, art and music and killed millions through neglect and nastiness. And because all western governments are socialist with a capitalist sheen, they are working with the government to destroy freedom, especially economic freedom. They are fighting the battles of the 1960s, fifty years on.

So what DO the protesters need? They need to understand that the future will be far poorer than the present. That billions of people will die over the next few decades as the oil runs out and the climate turns vicious. They need to learn the skills that will get them through this, forget decadent, consumerist socialism and start building their own lives and communities without expecting the rest of us to do it for them.

The same disease is present throught he current 'Too Thick to Fail' protests, back through the August riots and further back to the Student Protests. It's all about the same - entitlement and lack of personal responsibility.

That's what this is all about. And it will end in tears ...

nazis swarm

The Nazi 'Occupy' movement continues to splutter from one disaster to another. Gaining the nickname 'Too Thick to Fail' hasn't helped their cause one bit, neither has the indifference of 99.9% of the population, who think they are a bunch of spoilt middle-class brats. And the St Paul's debacle brings shame on the whole country.

But what is really sinister is their method, and the madness behind it. We are in the middle of the Second Crisis of Socialism, as the money being pumped into failed banks is still not doing the job. The stupid corporate types who are the vanguard of weak capitalism should actually be hanging from lampposts, not being bailed out by their fellow socialists in government. This started with George Bush and is now spreading around the world.

What are they scared of? Why have they abandoned capitalism? Why suddenly do people like Bush, Obama, Cameron et al suddenly think that socialism will work when it never has before? Why don't they just trumpet Schumpeter and let creative destruction run its course?These banks MUST fail, then we can start rebuilding the economies of the world. Instead socialist measures like nationalisation and currency debasement are still being tried.

This is the real problem of democracy. Because politicians depend so much on their 'jobs' of being politicians, they have to appease the people, so they will continue to vote for them. So they offer these easy fixes, rather than tackle the problem. All it does is put things off, and when the shit really hits the fan it will be that much worse. With luck the politicians will be able to blame other politicians. They are a bunch of morons.

So where do our dear little middle-class 'protestors' fit into all of this? Well, they are thick as shit, so probably couldn't tell you why they are doing it. (The bright ones are out building businesses and communities of course). I suspect they are all Daily Mail readers, and really believe the lies and propaganda they read. And then they try the old Nazi trick of 'Us and Them'. 'We are the 99%,' they bleat. Really? I don't know ONE person that believes in any of this. 99% of people couldn't care less, and the other 1% hate them. I have even seen Nazi-style cartoons depicting 'capitalists' as fat, Jewish looking 1930s types, wearing top hats for fuck's sake! This is the level these idiots have already sunk to.

Fortunately the cold weather is coming, and the little loves will soon be sniffling into their Gucci mufflers and running out of chilbain ointment (they are all so delicate!) They will finally do the decent thing and let St Paul's reopen, and the squalor where once they were will soon disappear.

Luvvies - you are 40 or 50 years too late. Socialism failed in 1990 and is now in its final death throes. The future will be strong capitalism, single-person businesses in small communities, working through Peak Oil and Climate Chnage. There'll be no big states, no central government, no huge bureaucracy to try to create a command economy, no snazzy posters reaffirming your membership of the 99%, no more racist cartoons, no benefits, no rich parents. You'll all have to fucking work! And it's that thought that keeps my smile big and broad as I hear about your latest anti-social exploits on the news. Babies.

'too thick to fail' succeed - in closing st paul's!!

Hitler would have been proud of the 'Too Thick to Fail' zombies who are infesting the area outside St Paul's (because they're too scared to confront the city types). Their little gas stoves are a fire hazard, their tents are unhygienic, and they insist on using the font as a toilet.

They are so stupid it's beyond belief. They have a big banner screaming 'Capitalism is Crisis'. What the fuck? They can't even spell 'in' properly! This has NOTHING to do with capitalism, it's a crisis of socialism, namely governments who insist on intervening in the market to win votes by putting off the REAL economic crisis that will be riding the twin pigs of Peak Oil and the End of Growth.

I detest these little middle-class protestors who have all managed to get Friday off work (LOL!) They don't have a clue what they are protesting about. And I bet they all pop to Starbucks for their espressos and paninis.

I've done my share of protests. Raiding council meetings, monkeywrenching and of course the FANTASTIC Poll Tax demos that brought the sow Thatcher down. Now that WAS socialism at its worst, a flat rate tax on everyone, no doubt predating a flat rate of pay.

Zombies that have closed St Paul's - you are not the 99%. You are not even 1%. You are a tiny nano% of a tiny priveledged minority of chinless, posh, middle class off cuts that are embarrassing the rest of us. Go back to your detached homes ...

part of the 1% - and EXTREMELY proud of it

For fuck's sake! So the little sheep (read middle class lefty scum) are trying to bring down the system! It's YOUR system you divs. This is a crisis of socialism, not capitalism. Bailed out banks are socialist and socialised institutions. You are attacking your own!

The battle of the future will be between weak capitalism and strong capitalism. If the sheep want to attack weak capitalism I don't reallly mind, as long as it doesn't affect me. If the sheep want to attack the very socialist institutions that will provide their pensions and underwrite the UK weak capitalist system that pays billions intaxes to pay for their health care, roads, schools etc then let 'em do it. They are far too thick to understand what they are doing, though that's not an excuse.

Morons, your battle is a fight from the last century. Each and every one of you sheep has benefited from our government's socialist bail out. You supported it, you ARE the weak capitalist bankers! You are now (apparently) arguing against deficit cuts because YOU didn't cause them!! Of course you did. You use state services, you use credit, many of you shared in the house price 'boom', all parts of this problem.

I detest being told I'm part of the 99%. I'm not! I'm not part of this great weak capitalist revolution that is merely WASTING yet more money when we should be saving it.

The war of the 21st century will be between STRONG capitalism - small, mainly one person operations actually creating something with one eye on the environment and WEAK capitalism, which is what you lot LOVE. That's banks, oil companies, corporates, luxury goods sellers, the meat industry, chemicals, all the vile, pointless set ups that really only exist to keep people in 'jobs' and exploit the planet. If we don't reduce the deficit these socialist set ups will continue to plunder the planet's resources, foul the atmosphere and keep consumers mired in 'things' they don't need.

Be proud to be part of the 1% - the rebels, the independent thinkers, the strong business owners, the railwaymen and women, artists, musicians, writers, nurses, teachers, doctors and organic farmers. We're the future.

The 99% - the sheep, the bankers, the Daily Mail readers, the weak business employees, the racists, the Labour party members, the tories, the trade unions - can all go to hell. You've had your chance and you've blown it. Time to let the 1% run things from now on!

killing the pound

So the Bank of England have just 'created' £75 billion. That's over £1000 for every single person in the country. So is every single one of us - babes in arms, benefits scroungers, zimmer warriors, my ex-wife - each going to produce another £1000+ in added value?? Of course not. So what will happen is that our money will simply inflate to make up the gap. Pointless.

This is a transfer from savers to losers, from those that work hard to those that are work shy. This race to the bottom is pathetic. It's terribly un-British so no surprise that the tories and the BBC both love it. Oh, and the stock market, that has risen over 3% today. Well of course, because that's where all this extra 'money' will go to. They are a bunch of idiots, all those that think this is 'good news'. In reality it's a disaster.

I read a disturbing piece yesterday froma  US investor who reckons the following European countries are in real danger of collapse. Greece, Italy, Spain, Ireland and Switzerland. Yes, Switzerland! And why? Because they are fiddling their currency. And once people - both in the country and outside - lose faith in their currency then that currency, and country, are fucked. I suppose he'll add the UK to that list today.

So what IS needed?

The first thing is to accept that growth is finished, now and probably for the next few thousand years, until we can create a proper, solar powered economy. So policies that are supposed to 'kick start' growth are a complete waste of time and energy.

The second step is to link the value of our currency to the amount of gold (and silver and copper) that we own. Then our currency should actually be MADE out of this resource. Inflation will vanish, digital money will be a thing of the past, and we will at last have sound money that everybody wants!

The third step is to build a transport system based on rail - railways, even High Speed lines, tramways, industrial lines, ultra light systems - anything that can be powered by electricity or wood-burning steam. Oil will vanish over the next few decades, cars will never be viable again, and air travel will vanish completely. New businesses can then grow up around these new transport systems, giving us an edge over countries that are still tied to oil.

The fourth and final step is something that has to happen inside all of us. Forget a 'career', forget becoming a 'celebrity', forget some sort of natural 'progression' that burns through energy and resources and just leaves you feeling unsatisfied and unhappy. Instead concentrate on acquiring some land, acquiring the skills to make it provide an income, learn how to defend it, get your own water and power laid on, and start building the community around you at the same time. Or become a nurse, teacher or tram driver - professions with a future.

All the rest is, as Arthur Seaton will affirm, propaganda ...

teresa may - liar

What the fuck is Cameron thinking? Why did he let that droop-faced moron Teresa May LIE to the Tory conference? The sow cold bloodedly (and knowingly) lied that an immigrant had been allowed to stay in the UK because he HAD A CAT!!

This is a complete lie, and decent Kenneth Clarke attacked the old hag for it. And what's happened? Poor Ken has had to APOLOGISE to the old Isthmian League Thatcher for being a tad rude.

The simple fact is that when this person was asked to give examples of the strength of his relationship to a British woman he said that they owned a cat together. This, and other examples, were enough to convince the judge that his case was genuine. He was allowed to stay for that reason, not 'because he had a cat'.

Cameron should SACK this horrible old slut for blatantly lying to the party conference and for jumping on a bandwagon no doubt started by those idiots at the Daily Mail or some similar such rag.

Get some backbone Cameron, or you'll be finished. Start with this sow.

oh dear ...

Eric Pickles - an inspiration to us all?

What the fuck are the tories playing at? Less than two years in government and they are already falling apart, pulling in opposite directions to each other and, more importantly, going in a totally different direction to the rest of us!

Eric Pickles, some sort of Trotskyite Humpty Dumpty trapped forever in a fifties black and white Britain, has SERIOUSLY suggested that money is available to help councils introduce a weekly refuse collection!! Yes, you read that right. Whilst the rest of the world is cutting back on landfill and doing everything it can to reduce waste, this left wing moron wants to do the opposite because that is what the retards at the Daily Mail want!! For fuck's sake!! What we need to do is REDUCE waste collection to once monthly. Even then many bins will be half empty. I know ours will. Because nearly everything these days is either recyclable or compostable.

And then, just to add another twist of madness, the same party decides that this is the perfect time to suggest RAISING motorway speed limits!! In reality motorway speed limits should be drastically reduced, perhaps in 5mph installments, over the next four years, giving us a maximum speed of 50mph. This is plenty fast enough in the permanent energy crisis, if you need to get anywhere faster use the trains.

The idea behind this is to increase the tax take from cars (which is of course falling as people abandon their cars - even in this age of incredibly cheap fuel) - because driving faster uses MORE oil, therefore brings in more income from duty. If nothing else it proves that this government will constantly hammer motorists through creative means, and perhaps burning through precious oil more quickly and hammering the dinosaurs through tax shows that there are some serious eco-activists operating inside the old folks' party!

oh dear Obama

Do you remember all the euphoria when Obama got elected? There was going to be change in the world, the US was going to throw off its Third World mentality and become an equal member of the global 'community'. The US was going to become a  normal country.

So what is the US now, a few years along the line? Well an almost certainly innocent man was executed last week, despite all the evidence showing he was not to blame. The relatives of the person killed said they were 'justice had been done'! Hardly, if the person that did it is still walking around free. Nothing learned there then.

And what of the economy? Has Obama created the sustainable society that the US needs? Not at all. He's still trying the old socialist trick of printing money to keep the plebs in their place surrounded by consumer tat, in an environment going downhill all the time.

And as for the US in the world - they still blunder from crisis to crisis missing the point spectacularly. They still think the problem is terrorism, a dying middle class pursuit if ever there were one, rather than the real horrors of Peak Oil and Climate Change.

Perhaps there are just too many hippies in the USA, all growed up and in positions of power and influence. The (clearly insane) christian preachers, the corporate unimaginative types, the trailer park white trash, all marginalising, by their very ubiquity, those who would see new ways to get through the future.

Because that's the crux of it. The future won't be designed by weak and well-meaning politicians, old style corporate buffoons, christians willing an apocalypse or the great unwashed, but by individuals willing to embrace an energy-poor, wild weather enhanced future. The sad  thing is that many of these future leaders ARE from the US, but are drowned out by the far more common socialist hordes, who want nothing more than endless economic growth, a house full of crap and a tree that sprouts ever common US dollars ...

the new facebook ...

... is brilliant! The best feature is the way that uploaded photos are now shown really large, which give sthe whole site a much more visual feel - and has certainly encouraged me to start putting random photos on.

zero doubt

It's hilarious the way politicians and commentators are still talking about 'growth'. Do they think we are stupid? Don't answer that - or course they do.

But look at the graph above. Bank rates are at their lowest for 300 years! Surely even the most economically dyslexic can see that this is the one signal that even they can't ignore. What this chart means is that growth is finished. Not just for today or the next ten years, but probably for hundreds or even thousands of years. The reason? The end of cheap energy, booming population growth and the rising cost of many basic raw materials.

The industrial age is entering its final stage. Beyond that we are going to have to adjust to a sustainable energy society, lose possibly seven or eight billion people worldwide and completely alter the way we live.

Growth was fun. It meant that we could look forward to becoming more and more prosperous each year. It meant that we could genuinely expect our kids to have 'better' lives than we did. But most of it was financed on credit, or if you will by stealing from future generations. The downside is that we destroyed communities, damaged our climate, created ugliness everywhere and softened up intellectually.

Politics will change enormously over the next few decades. There will be a rush to the parties that promise to reduce growth. There will probably be far less democracy, more coercion. Our transport systems will change totally. Roads will vanish, railways and tramways will thrive. The canals will be used once more to move non-perishables. We'll all have to learn to create with our hands. Perhaps 80% of us will spend all or part of our time growing food. Small craftspeople, carpenters, blacksmiths, horse hauliers, teachers, nurses etc will flourish. Most of the non jobs that currently waste billions will go. The public sector will vanish, small (one person) capitalism will be the standard model for the economy.

Kids will learn how to grow plants, care for animals, look after the planet. Most lessons will be outdoors. They'll be able to play on the streets again, because there won't be any cars on them!

Adults will work harder but for less hours. We'll all hopefully have a little bit of land on which to grow all or some of our food. We'll take the tram to market to buy or sell, take the train to the seaside for our holidays, perhaps a couple of times in our life travel to continental Europe, a trip that will become an epic event!

Our lives are going to change enormously. The economic crisis, which is only just entering its most benign stage, will cause huge upheavals for us all. Most of us will have to change what we do to make a living. Many of us won't make it through. Even the climate will make it harder to do what we need to do. Expect huge horror stories from around the world. The economic crisis isn't causing this, it's just a simple message or signal of what is happening behind the scenes. The market is never wrong and learning to read it will be one of those essential life skills that we're all going to need to develop over the coming years. 

toxic tories abandon scotland

It's finally dawning on the tories (after all, they are rather slow) that they need to change their act in Scotland. When I lived up there the tories had one MP - seems that's still all they've got.

Why? Well the Scots aren't stupid for a start. And they are their own people. Why would they vote tory?

As an openly unionist party the tories are always going to reward England first, that's where their remaining support is.

But the world's moved on from Queen Victoria and Rudyard Kipling. The Scottish tories seem to have realised that, and their main candidate for leadership of the Scottish tories - surely the most thankless and activity-free job in the western world - says he'll be changing the name of the party when he wins. The tory name is just too toxic.

This is  another sigh that the UK is beginning to fragment at all levels. The tories are of course toxic at all levels and in all parts of the UK. Thatcher basically destroyed them. Yes, I know the tories currently are in government, but only as part of a coalition. We have a tory Prime Minister but he's little more than a buffoon. And ANY party could have won against the dreadful 'New Labour' rabble.

Here is Wessex we are primarily a Liberal Democrat area. There are a few tories, more Labour MPs. As the UK fractures England itself will, along lines that are already forming. There are regionalist and even separatist groups in all parts of England, taking their lead from the nationalists in Scotland, Wales, Ciornwall and, to a lesser extent, Northern Ireland. Whilst the regionalist parties and groups are part of the future, the fracturing of the big London-based parties will be a further sign that we are moving forwards. Scotland, once again, is leading the way.

sieg heil

The Nazis are back. Last night a gang of them stormtrooped their way into the Albert Hall and started to disrupt a concert.

We don't have enough beauty or high culture in our lives, these SA types would close what we do have down.

The reason the assault happened was because the orchestra was the Israel Philharmonic. So?? Apparently this was enough to justify a bunch of racist thugs to disrupt and yell abuse, because of some nonsense over Palestine. It appears that each of these musicians has a double life, as well as puffing away on oboes and scratching away on cellos, they are personally responsible for the policies of the Israeli government.

I only wish I'd been there, clutching the community gun ...

subspecies

Here's some to get you started ....

You'll almost certainly think I'm making this up but I promise I'm not!

This appears on a christian's blog in the Third World hell hole that is christian USA.

Brothers and Sisters , I have been seriously considering forming a ( christian ) grassroots type of organization to be named “The christian National Registry of Atheists” or something similar . I mean , think about it . There are already National Registrys for convicted sex offenders , ex-convicts , terrorist cells , hate groups like the KKK , skinheads , radical Islamists , etc..

This type of “National Registry” would merely be for information purposes . To inform the public of KNOWN ( i.e., self-admitted) atheists . For example , let’s say you live in Colorado Springs , Colorado , you could simply scroll down ( from the I-Net site /Blog ) I would have , to the State of Colorado , and then when you see “Colorado Springs” , you will see the names of all the self-admitted atheist(s) who live there ( e.g., if an atheist’s name happened to be “Phil Small” ) . The individual’s physical address , and other known personal information would NOT be disclosed ( though , perhaps a photo could be ) .

Now , many (especially the atheists ) , may ask “Why do this , what’s the purpose ?” Duhhh , Mr. Atheist , for the same purpose many States put the names and photos of convicted sex offenders and other ex-felons on the I-Net – to INFORM the public ! I mean , in the City of Miramar , Florida , where I live , the population is approx. 109,000 . My family and I would sure like to know how many of those 109,000 are ADMITTED atheists ! Perhaps we may actually know some . In which case we could begin to witness to them and warn them of the dangers of atheism . Or perhaps they are radical atheists , whose hearts are as hard as Pharaoh’s , in that case , if they are business owners , we would encourage all our christian friends , as well as the various churches and their congregations NOT to patronize them as we would only be “feeding” Satan .

Frankly , I don’t see why anyone would oppose this idea – including the atheists themselves ( unless of course , they’re actually ashamed of their atheist religion , and would prefer to stay in the ‘closet.’ ) .

Why exactly does this moron think athiests are something to do with that perverse and exclusively christian god Satan?? Ignorant as well as mad! And athiesm is NOT a religion, buffoon.

0

I'm sick of hearing politicians and even economists (who should know better) that the cure for our economic woes is - GROWTH!

Ladies and gentlemen - you are being prize twats. Growth has gone, never to return. The important thing now is managing decline. The last two hundred years have seen relentless growth. Why? Because we used our ingenuity to create technologies that would utilise the Earth's resources. But those resources are now in terminal decline, especially oil.

The future will be about realisation, adjustment, and very very slowly creating new technologies, based on renewable resources (principally wood and sunlight). Population will plummet from the current ridiculous levels to hundreds of millions. Eventually the Earth will be in balance again.

So what's our future, the next three or four generations? Probably one of great difficulty mixed with big helpings of calm. It's going to be an incredibly interesting time. There will be great opportunity for creativity. There'll be loads of wars, fought with ever decreasing technology. For a generation or two we'll see a return of conflict, heroism and excitement.

The crap we're surrounded with from the celebrity culture, socialism, nine to five misery, motorways, traffic jams, shit architecture, the elevation of stupidity will die, and far more quickly that most of us expect.

So do you still think there's room for growth you twats in 'power'??

wake up call?

It looks like Hurricane Irene may not be quite as devastating as initially expected BUT surely it's time for the US to start taking Global Warming seriously (as if Katrina wasn't enough!)

The general concensus is that this hurricane has taken this more northerly path because the sea temperatures are unusually high along the NE coast - 1 to 3 degrees F.

Hurricanes have of course taken similar routes before, in 1938 for example. But that hurricane took that course because of the way pressure systems were aligned, it had nothing to do with sea water temperatures.

Of course if this temperature anomaly is to become a regular feature then the NE will need to prepare for more hurricanes. If anything the sea temperatures will continue to rise. In fact it's this particular signal - sea temperature rise - that is the clearest and least ambiguous marker of clear global warming. Sea temperature rise is of course the least complex indicator of global warming and has been on the rise (in both senses of the word!) for decades.

And the most disturbing thing I've seen so far in relation to this? An MCNBC reporter standing in front of a fifty storey skyscraper - on a Sunday morning - with ALL the lights on!!! Why? Do people work in every one of these offices at 4am on a Sunday morning? Highly unlikely. It seems the US still doesn't get what's happening, or make the links. WAKE UP!!

I predict a lot of bullshit

Riots. Typical English recreational activity. And lots and lots of hand wringing and soul searching from people that really can NEVER understand what motivates people to do this because, let's face it, their backgrounds are as different from those of these kids as possible.

Rioting's wrong. Attacking shops and, even worse, individuals', homes is disgraceful. To be fair no-one is justifying this part of it. It did get rather out of hand ...

Of course a lot of it was opportunism from organised gangs. And have pundits made any real attempt to work out why kids join gangs? Of course not.

I was in a gang in my twenties. I absolutely loved it. I loved the power we had and the fear from 'straight's when we were around. We didn't ever start any trouble, and we were rather tinged with intellectualism and irony, but we did some pretty terrible stuff, far worse than a bit of rioting!

My other little bit of personal experience is that I actually live on one of the estates where rioters generally originate from. This time we had no trouble, but we certainly have had in the past. In fact the whole of Hartcliffe's pretty proud that the kids here didn't get involved. This estate does have a very strong sense of community which I'm sure helps.

So what really is behind all this? I reckon three things. Peak Oil and the end of growth, consumerism and crap communities.

Peak Oil effects seem to be affecting the whole world, principally by wiping out growth (from the 'credit crunch' onwards), which leaves almost all of us on the edge finacially.

Consumerism is a really sad substitute for real life. I hate it. I couldn't care less what things are or what they cost. It's pathetic.

Crap communities? Caused mainly by the idiot freak Thatcher and stupid rags like the Daily Mail, which seek to frighten people, setting different sections of society against each other.

It also didn't help that Thatcher, probably the most moronic prime minister we've ever suffered, created this dependency culture that led to the rise (in numbers) of the underclass. Whilst there was a chance of growth I suppose everyone had a chance, but those days are clearly over. When the Fed announces that interest rates in the US will remain 'extremely low' for at least two years you know the game's up. We need massive hikes in interest rates to bring the real message home, that the days of waste, credit and badly directed resources have to end. The government is still sending out mixed and pointless messages.

They've been stirring this pot for years and now it's boiling.

will the chickens be coming home tomorrow?

This was going to be a post on stupidity based around formula one, but today's market developments mean I really do need to allude to them as well! So I'm going to try to struggle through the anaemia and diabetes and hay fever and attempt to blend the two. Don't judge me harshly ...

This appeared on Facebook the other day -

Please vote, we don't want another sport on Sky

Keep F1 coverage on the BBC for ALL races from 2012

Oh dear! I thought it was 2011, not 1961!  

So I responded - very meekly for me!

I love the idea that there's a whole alternative world out there where oil isn't running out, where there will be constant economic growth and where something as unimportant worries people! The idea that there will be anything resembling car racing in ten or twenty years' time is hilarious!

Amazingly this came back to me -

Clearly you know absolutely nothing about the sport, which for a non-fan is to be expected. If you took all the fuel from the cars for the year, and stuck it into a jumbo jet, you wouldn't reach New York with it. The FIA perform a series of initatives to try and keep the sport sustainable, balancing out the carbon effects. Additionally, road cars are now significantly safer today because of past developments through the sport - the energy recovery used in F1 today could have significant benefits for our road cars in the near future. Indeed, London Transport are in discussions with Williams GP regarding their fly-wheel energy recovery.

I suppose you'd have us all passing our free-time by knitting wooly jumpers, and watching cookery programs? I could only suggest that you report back immediately to the drugs company, that the trial batch they sent you last week has caused your brain to malfunction.

Oh dear - I appear to have rattled a hippy's cage!!

Let's analyse this.

Clearly you know absolutely nothing about the sport, which for a non-fan is to be expected. If you took all the fuel from the cars for the year, and stuck it into a jumbo jet, you wouldn't reach New York with it.

Really? I did ask for a source for this amazing claim, but obviously none was forthcoming.

Well I checked and here goes - A fully loaded 747 carries a maximum of 63,705 U.S. gal which is sufficient for an almost 8,000 mile range. Shorter trips or less cargo and it would carry less fuel.

So let's be unscientific and say that it's 4000 miles (discounting the lower fuel weight resulting in even better fuel efficiency) so say 32,000 US gallons.

The average F1 car has an 80 litre tank.

32,000 US gallons is 121,000 litres. This allows 1500 trips full tank to empty tank.  There are an average of 17 F1 races a year. So this will allow 88 trips each race. So I reckon he could be right - but I'd love to see his original source.

However of course the actual fuel used during a race is a tiny proportion of the fuel used to keep the whole show going ie transport from track to track, support vehicles and, most importantly, the fuel used to get punters to the racetrack! This is why EVERYBODY should be taught basic economics at school!

The FIA perform a series of initatives to try and keep the sport sustainable, balancing out the carbon effects. Additionally, road cars are now significantly safer today because of past developments through the sport - the energy recovery used in F1 today could have significant benefits for our road cars in the near future. Indeed, London Transport are in discussions with Williams GP regarding their fly-wheel energy recovery.

This looks like classic Greenwash to me. Amusing that this most unsustainable of 'sports' has to resort to it, but none of this is 'sustainable'. The end of cheap fuel and the eventual end of all fuel (for cars) will see to that. Our poster totally misses the point, then really descends into one ... and I love the idea that he thinks there will be road cars in the future!! Someone clearly hasn't had their Peak Oil moment yet - what a shock he's going to have!

I suppose you'd have us all passing our free-time by knitting wooly jumpers, and watching cookery programs? I could only suggest that you report back immediately to the drugs company, that the trial batch they sent you last week has caused your brain to malfunction.

Oh dear, here we go! What the fuck is going on in his head here? I think that because I've gently pointed out a few inevitabilities that he thinks there's some agenda here! There obviously isn't, he's probably confusing Peak Oil proponents with those scummy environmentalists. The last sentence is pure stupidity, and although he doesn't know me I suspect he'd want to retract that if he was aware that I need to take around 30 pills a day just to stay alive. Hippy moron!

So from the ridiculous to the sublime let's look at some of the events that have happened in the real world.

A week or so ago those bloated oddballs that run the EU, together with the dipsticks that run Greece, came up with a plan to keep the Greeks in luxury and indolence. 'Kicking the can down the road' is the phrase most commentators have employed to describe this money juggling.

But even I didn't expect it to blow up so quickly. The contagion has moved to Italy and probably Spain. This will pull the Euro apart and push the world back into recession. But what did we expect? Permanent recession now seems to be the only way forward, until we finally all realise that growth has finished, not for good but probably for at least a thousand years. We've obviously reached Peak Oil and those idiots and hippies in power haven't allowed for it. Some of them still talk about growth as if it's an option. It isn't. Once energy and commodity inputs start to level off and then fall all those caught with debt are NEVER going to clear it. That applies to individuals, families, companies and countries.

So we need a radical reappraisal NOW, not this constant nostalgic fiddling with a system that has died. How long will the politicians take to realise it? I don't know but those who understand it the quickest have the best chance of surviving this and taking their countries with it. There's not one British politician who gets it yet, at least the US has Ron Paul!

So, what next? The same advice as always - clear your debts, buy seeds, hand tools, gold, silver and land. Learn real skills and crafts that don't need energy inputs (other than elbow grease) and start putting down deep roots in your community.

it's dino time

Bomb in Oslo? Yawn.

For fuck's sake, when will these mummies  boys ever learn? WE DON'T CARE! The world has VAST problems ahead of it and your decadent, babyish gestures are pathetic.

Terrorists are all mummies' boys scum, brought up by priviledged parents, paid to get through uni, discover Marx, 'Jesus', some twat mullah or Hitler and, to gain kudos with their drug-addled, low IQ chums, start dabbling in explosives. Oh well, they're never going to get girlfriends, pets or jobs so why not take all their uselessness out on the rest of us?

Destroying is easy, creating is difficult. The mummies' boys ALWAYS take the easy way, never dare venture outside their safety zone.

And such cowards! They don't dare take on a big, serious country, but a little, uninvolved, quiet country like Norway. A PAGAN country for fuck's sake!

We ALL have a common enemy - the transition from oil to whatever comes after, and all whilst the planet's being ravaged by climate change. You mummies' boy Marxist islamic twats are a waste of space and have missed the point big time. Not one of you will survive the transition, you'll be crying your little baby eyes out when your allowance cheques dry up and you can't afford to fly or drive anywhere. Wankers.

a great leap backwards

'That's a small step for Man, a giant leap for mankind,' fluffed Neil Armstrong when he was the fourth person to step on the Moon in 1969. (The first three were Lionel Jeffries, Edward Judd and his girlfriend in 1900 of course).

1969 was the same year that Concorde was launched.

Perhaps 1969 was the peak year of human progress. US oil peaked the next year. Since then we've been treading water and now it seems like the whole world is drowning.

Yes, the final space shuttle flight has just landed, the shuttle, like Concorde, now destined for a museum. So what's happening?

Firstly the US is the world's poorest country, it really can't afford to continue in space.

Secondly, and more importantly, peak oil is clearly on us. The space programme has been fueled by oil, not nuclear power. Even the US can't justify the spiralling cost, even if it is putting it on the national credit card.

Obama, despite appearances, isn't stupid. He knows the reality of the energy crisis. He knows that there's little point in wasting vast amounts of increasingly scarce energy on a project that's doomed to failure precisely because of the nature of the energy crisis.

Sci fi writers have always seen our future in space, the human race gradually spreading out amongst the stars. Sadly it's not going to happen, at least not in the next few millenia.

Firstly we have to find a way of continuing technological progress without easy oil. That will take centuries. We're going to go through the most enormous upheaval over the next couple of decades as climate change and peak oil REALLY kick in. Civilization will practically collapse, we'll all return to subsistance farming and perhaps, if we're lucky, driving trams or steam trains, making furniture or frowing wood. Probably for centuries that will be all we do. The space race will become a distant fairy tale. We'll be too busy surviving to build spaceships. But eventually, once we've all adjusted and once we start progressing again in a solar economy we may find a way to get out into space again. And this time it won't be a race with an end. We really will get out amongst the stars.

california regrets ...

A ten mile stretch of an ironically named 'freeway' is to close - sadly not permanently - this weekend in Los Angeles. So? Why don't all those sad car drivers simply switch to the magnificent, world-leading, state of the art modern transport system that is the Pacific Electric Railway? With its fast big cars linking LA with its suburbs and other towns in southern California we should all be jealous of far thinking LA's preparation for the future ...

We wish - this magnificent system CLOSED by the 1960s, DELIBERATLY purchased and run down by a dinosaur combination of car and oil companies.

It's payback time commies! Okay, LA is gradually, slowly, reintroducing trams, but the current system is a tiny shadow of what it was and will be again.

So why is this 'freeway' being closed? So they can make 1 billion dollars worth of 'improvements' including widening a bridge. Why?? Who's going to be using it in ten or twenty years time? California surely should be investing for the FUTURE, not the past? They are even planning $4 helicopter trips to avoid the mess, though there are FREE journeys on mass transit. California is the crazy state that still thinks it's the 1960s, that there's still oil in USA oil wells and that the world's their oyster.

Not so long ago California planned to convert its entire road system and accompanying infrastructure to take hydrogen fuelled cars - no doubt until some bright spark explained to them that hydrogen wasn't a fuel but just an energy carrier, and one that required MORE energy than existing internal combustion engines. This is of course the state that has suffered from energy blackouts due to lack of generating capacity - how exactly were they going to generate even MORE electricity to fuel their hydrogen cars?

California really needs to start taking the future SERIOUSLY!