The Cop 27 Con Trick

I saw on the news today that world leaders have gathered in Egypt to try to solve the problem of climate change.

One speaker spoke about Carbon footprints, and emissions from cars and aircraft.

Those world leaders took along big retinues. Security, admin assistants, press officers, and who knows how many others. And talking of Press, the world’s media is in attendance. Reporters from every TV channel and newspaper, camera crews, sound men/women, satellite transmission engineers, and a multitude of assorted technicians to ensure that I can watch what is happening live in Egypt from my front room in Beetley.

They all flew there. More are flying there tomorrow. They all used cars, vans, and trucks to get from the airport. The most important world leaders will undoubtedly have had a motorcade of vehicles, along with Egyptian police vehicles to protect them.

Can they not see the irony? I can.

What about their carbon footprints? What about their aircraft and vehicle emissions? Have they never heard of Zoom calls? Could they not have had this conference without leaving their own countries, face to face over the Internet?

Or perhaps it is only the emissions and carbon footprints of ‘little people’ that matter? God forbid a hard-working family should enjoy a week in the sun once a year, or use their car to visit a relative. Oh no! That will destory the planet.

But when (self) important people want to fly anywhere, and then travel around in numerous vehicles, that’s okay. That’s essential.

Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.

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Newsreaders: Not Allowed To Be Human

(This post may have no interest for any readers who are not resident in the UK.)

The BBC has some very good news presenters and journalists on its 24-hour programme BBC News 24. One of my favourites is the lively Martine Croxall, a lady who presents a very human face when reading the news, or appearing on longer news and political presentations.

As far as I am concerned, she is an assest to the BBC, and we could do with more like her, and far fewer of the po-faced, self-important news presenters who think they are the focus of the news, not the stories.

When Boris Johnson announced that he was to run again recently for election to the leadership of the Conservative Party, that was greeted with derison my many journalists, and generated dire warnings from others. So when he announced his withdrawal from the contest at the last minute, that came as a relief to almost everyone in this country.

Including, it would seem, the excellent Martine Croxall. Here is her very human reaction to that news.

However, following her obvious smiles and use of the word ‘gleeful’, complaints flooded in. She was accused of showing bias against Boris Johnson, and breaking the rules of ‘impartiality’ that supposedly exist at the BBC. She was then removed from her job as a newspreader and presenter, and her fate is as yet unknown.

This is worrying to me, as other presenters are blatantly biased and impartial but all of those are still working. Not least the pro-Conservative Fiona Bruce, who uses her role as presenter of the high-profile BBC1 show ‘Question Time’ every week to allow right-wing guests to say anything they like without interruption, then shuts down any argument against them in seconds. Fiona is married to an advertising executive whose company received almost £4,000,000 to advertise Conservative Government Policy.

That’s an easy jigsaw to put into place. A 3 year-old could do it.

Fiona Bruce’s current salary from the BBC is over £409,000 a year. This includes her salary for presenting the TV programme ‘Antiques Roadshow’.
Martine Croxall’s salary was estimated to be around £100,000 a year.

I know who I would sooner watch.

Liz Drops The Ball

After a month in the job of Prime Minister, Liz Truss is already on the back foot. One huge policy U-turn has already been necessary, and her performance at the recent Conservative Party Conference was uninspiring at best. She must have a bad headache this weekend, as she reads the newspapers. The few politicians remaining loyal to her, mostly to protect their jobs in cabinet posts, are urging the rest of the party to back her to the hilt.

But she has dropped 25 points in the polls below the Labour opposition, giving the leader of that party, the equally uninspiring Keir Starmer, a spring his step, and a smile on his face. Next, she faces action from the fiery Scottish Nationalist leader, Nicola Sturgeon, who is tackling her head on about a referendum for an independent Scotland in 2023. With only just over a year left to make her mark, it seems that Truss may well face a disastrous defeat in 2024, unless she goes back on almost every policy she advocated during her leadership campaign.

Some of her colleagues are already calling for a vote of no confidence, and a new leadership election. The only thing holding them off is the fear that she might call an early General Election, thereby losing most of them their lucrative parliamentary seats, and handing government to Labour on a silver platter.

The U-turn that caused all the fuss was over the scrapping of the 45p in the Pound tax rate for anyone earning over £150,000 a year. One day she defended it, the next day she reinstated it. The Chancellor, Kwazi Kwarteng, defended his decision to scrap it, claiming in had been a ‘distraction’ from more important policies.

But it was too late.

Interest rates had already risen.
The Pound had fallen to an all-time low against the US Dollar.
Monthly Mortgage payments had already increased.
Mortgage availability decreased.
Anyone buying their own home was worse off.
National debt had increased because of the fall in the pound and the rising rates.

The media and various financial pundits were all asking the same question.

Why had that been done in the first place, when a financial guru like Kwarteng must have known it would be a disaster?

I think I know the answer.

Before becoming a politician, Kwarteng had been a successful hedge fund manager in the financial world. As a schoolboy, he won a scholarship to attend the influential Eton College, one of the most prestigious private schools in England. Other famous old Etonians include Boris Johnson, David Cameron, and Jacob Rees-Mogg. All of whom have had Conservative Cabinet posts, or served as Prime Minister.

In other words, Kwazi’s friends.

Kwarteng also worked for JP Morgan Chase as a financial analyst, and was a journalist on the right-wing newspaper, The Daily Telegraph. So his credentials are undeniable. He knows about national finance, he knows about international finance, currency markets, and interest rates. And he is not short of money, with his personal wealth estimated to be close to £3 million.

That means he also knows about ‘Shorting’ currency. Betting that it will fall on the world markets to make those markets nervous and guaranteeing it will fall. He also knows about buying back currency when it has reached all-time lows, and making a small fortune when it settles back to where it was before the fall.

Far be it from me to suggest he did this. That would be ‘Insider Trading’, and is illegal in UK law.

But you can bet he made a few phone calls to his rich friends, and that they are drinking very expensive champagne since Truss was forced to do her U-turn.

Pigs at the trough. Pure and simple. And what of the people struggling to pay increased loans and mortgages?

“Let them eat cake.”

Black Gold: More Greed From Opec

I have just watched on the BBC News that Opec-Plus members have agreed to cut the production of oil by up to two million barrels a day.

At the time of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the barrel price of oil reached a peak of $130, generating massive profits for oil companies, and for the oil-producing nations. Prices for petrol, diesel, and heating oil hit an all-time high, but have slowly been slipping since. Last week, they were down to £93 a barrel, still much higher than in previous years.

So the Opec members have reacted by agreeing to cut production, thereby forcing prices up again, so they can continue to profit from everyone who needs to drive, use heating oil, or face price increases on everything because of increased transport and delivery costs. Some of the countries involved in Opec are among the richest in the world, and include heads of state who are personally rich beyond comprehension.

Following today’s announcement oil increased in price immediately, and the prices of petrol and diesel are set to follow by the end of today.

How much is enough? How much greed must the non-producing countries tolerate? It appears that Opec Plus believes there is never too much profit, never enoough money, and that the countries dependent on oil imports have to tolerate any increase, no matter how huge.

This greed at a time of worldwide austerity and uncertainty is just obscene.

Let’s never forget the countries involved in this, if one day they come to us asking for aid or favours. Here is a list of them.

Algeria, Angola, Congo, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.

Aneurin Bevan Quote

Aneurin “Nye” Bevan (15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party politician. Born into a working-class family in South Wales, he was the son of a coal miner. He left school at 14 and worked as a miner during his teens where he became involved in local union politics. He was named head of his Miners’ Lodge when aged 19, where he frequently railed against management. He joined the Labour Party and attended Central Labour College in London. On his return to South Wales he struggled to find work, remaining unemployed for nearly three years before gaining employment as a union official, which led to him becoming a leading figure in the 1926 general strike.

In 1928, Bevan won a seat on Monmouthshire County Council and was elected as the MP for Ebbw Vale the following year. In Parliament, he became a vocal critic of numerous other politicians from all parties, including Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George. His criticisms of Churchill and the Conservative government during the Second World War raised him to national prominence.

I think I would have got on well with him.

Changing The World

Commie stuff. Yes, that was me!

beetleypete

Did you ever think you would help to change the world?

I did.

I was almost sixteen years old, and reading a lot of books. And I was also watching the news. Lots of things were happening.

*The Prague Spring.
*The Vietnam War.
*Civil Rights Protests at some American universtities.
*Protests at universities in Japan.
*Student protests in Poland.
*Demonstration against the Vietnam war in London.
*Baader-Meinhof terror bombings in Germany.
*Martin Luther King Jnr assassinated in America.
*Student riots and civil unrest in Paris.
*Student demonstrations in Yugoslavia.
*Robert Kennedy assassinated in America.
*State of emergency in Malaya following a Communist insurgency.
*Demonstrations against the military government of Brazil.
*Women’s Liberation protests in America and Britain.
*The ‘Troubles’ begin in Northern Ireland.
*Black Power salutes are seen at the Olympic Games.
*Israel attacks Lebanon.

Yes, a big list, and all in one year. And that is only a selection.

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The Obscenity Of Profit

Fuel prices are at an all-time high in Britain. Many people can no longer afford to use their car for anything but essential travel. Prices are going up in the supermarkets, all blamed on fuel price increases. This coming winter, domestic heating and electricity costs are set to rise to at least one third of the income of people on ‘average salaries’.

This has all been blamed on the war in Ukraine.

Yet that is a blatant lie. A con-trick foisted on the people of this country by the Conservative government, and their rich friends in big business.

The truth is quite simple.

They are milking the poor to feed the rich, and to make them even richer.

The proof is out there, and broadcast on the news media.

‘Energy firm BP has announced profits of almost £7-billion for the second quarter of 2022.’

BP CEO – Bernard Looney is getting an £11.7m bonus during a time 90% of the population is struggling to survive.

So why didn’t the war in Ukraine affect BP profits and the bonus of the CEO?

BECAUSE IT WAS A LIE.

Prime Greed

New today that at least seven Conservative politicians in the current government are claiming the cost of their Amazon Prime subscription on expenses.

One of those is Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary and candidate to lead the Conservative Party and become the next Prime Minister. (No pun intended)

Her salary as a Cabinet Minister is £147,000 a year. ($175,000) Yet she has no shame in expecting the taxpayers of Britain to pay for her £79 annual Amazon Prime subscription.

More pigs at the trough, showing their contempt for ordinary people.

Is There Still A War In Ukraine?

I know, silly question.

But if you had been watching all the main news channels here for the past week, you might be forgiven for thinking that Ukraine and Russia had called it quits.

Boris Johnson, lies in parliament, resignation, who wants his job. Big news. Bigger than a war that might escalate across Europe, even become a world war?

Well the mainstream media obviously thinks so. Even the Wimbledon tennis and Women’s football took precedence.

Then the former prime minister of Japan was assassinated.

But they had to cut back from that to the ‘Breaking News’ that Keir Starmer was not going to be charged with any breach of lockdown rules.

Ukraine? Nothing. I sat through a few main bulletins hoping to be told what was going on, but all I got were updates on who was going to stand for election as Conservative leader, then some lightweight stuff about heatwaves this weekend, and how good that is for British beach resorts.

So Ukraine is only newsworthy when there is nothing more important to report.

Like increased ice cream sales in Eastbourne, and making sure you wear sun cream.