Cold, Colder, Coldest

Dang that weather (not Climate of course just weather).

This summer has been the UK's coolest since 1993, provisional Met Office figures indicate.


The figures cover 1 June to 29 August. But while this summer has been wetter than 2010, it has not been as wet as 2007, 2008 or 2009.

And after that winter,

In the UK it was the coldest December ever, since Met Office records began in 1910, with a mean temperature of -1°C. It broke the previous record of 0.1°C in December 1981.

December 2010 has the lowest CET, -0.7 °C, since a CET of -1.1 °C was recorded for February 1986. December 2010 can also be confirmed to be the coldest December for 120 years, since a monthly CET of -0.8 °C was recorded for December 1890 and the second coldest December since records began in 1659. Probably the most notable record of the winter so far is the new all time record low for Northern Ireland, of -18.7 °C recorded on the 23rd of December at Castlederg, County Tyrone. In addition, all of these sites recorded their all time record lows since recording began, this winter:

It all just shows that weather has nothing to do with climate, nor the need for massive subsidies for wind farms and tax and price rioses for the foolish masses.

Little bit of Politics

The Edinburgh Fringe is off and running. And in its normal way the wannabe comics. But something I noticed this morning in the reviews is that UKIP is becoming a traget.

Both Andrew Maxwell, an Irish comic and Juliet Meyers referenced the party in their acts, enough so that watchuing critics felt the need to mention it. OK, so you are not going to get anything positive about UKIP from a 'edgy' comic performance now are you. After all Maxwell shows his grasp of global politics in his comment about the London bombings,

"I was in South Africa when the London bombs happened, and it was Muslim this, Muslim that. It's nothing to do with Muslims, it's a psychopathic billionaire who's waging a despotic war against working-class people all over the world."

Anyhow here is Maxwell in the Guardian,

To a Ukip politician who approvingly cited Belfast as a precedent for turning the British army against British citizens, Maxwell tartly replies: "That's exactly what we need right now – a black IRA."

And here is Myers from the Scotsman review site.

she's much more likable than the portrait she paints of her UKIP-voting, Iraqi Jew father.

To my mind this is a departure and the point where by raising in the public view and by argueing a cogent point UKIP is becoming a target. Fine and bring it on. After all no comic, not even Ben Elton in his Red Wedge pomp ever converted a voter, but reflected the eddies and currents of society. Our day is coming.

Makes me feel a little cold

Wandering round local media outlets as I do I happened across the website of the Tameside Reporter and Glossop Chronicle.

They look a pair of decent local papers, having been churning out the local news for well over a hundred years each.

But scroll down to the bottom of the page,

Supported by the Single Regeneration Budget, European Regional Development Fund & The Tame Valley Initiative

I don't know about you but I would find it hard to believe that, independently minded and local as they are, they would be comfortable writing up stories that are critical of EU legislation and so on. It is very hard to bite the hand that feeds you.

"Europeans now see the union as undermining their ability to control their destiny"

So says Charles A. Kupchan from The Washington based Council on Foriegn Relations.

It is apparent to him that while the EU is getting stronger - in relation to the creation of of fiscal/transfer/debt union, it is losing any popular support it ever had,

On the economic front, Europe’s leading members – even if belatedly – are likely to take the necessary steps to stabilize the eurozone. The stakes are simply too high for France and Germany to let the euro fail. The likely outcome in the long run is greater convergence on fiscal policy – which the introduction of the euro should have entailed to begin with – and debt instruments backed by the collective eurozone. Deeper integration on fiscal policy will ultimately strengthen the EU – even if it means the consolidation of a multi-speed Europe and convinces members like Britain, which is determined to maintain its monetary and fiscal autonomy, to keep their distance from the common currency.

He says, which is undoubtedly true and no doubt is warming the cockles of those who have always striven for one country called Europe. Sucess is in their grasp... But, but...

The core of the problem is that the EU is becoming increasingly divorced from the European street. Since its inception, the project of European integration has primarily been an elite effort. Publics have been either disengaged or passively supportive.

But no longer; the EU has been politicized. In beer gardens in Munich, cafés in Paris, and tavernas in Athens the electorate is finally animated by the project of European integration. The EU, however, is the object of scorn, not affection. The rejection of the Constitutional Treaty, enlargement, immigration and the desirability of open borders, the financial downturn and the costs and benefits of a shared economic destiny – these developments have provoked considerable public ire. The EU is no longer a distant and elitist – even if benign – undertaking; many Europeans now see the union as undermining their ability to control their destiny.

Indeed. Of course without democratic and popular support, without legitimacy, then the peoples of Europe will not feel they have consented to the great strides in European integration being accomplished over the next few months. and if they have not consented, then what sort of ocracy have we got within the EU? If it isn't democracy, what is it?

And if it isn't democracy, how do the people change the elite's decisions?

The EU has found a solution to the financial crisis

In the light of mass and increasing unemployment across the EU 27. In the face of a constant rolling crisis in the Eurozone finally the European Commission has been moved to act.

European Commission proposes to make 2013 the "European Year of Citizens"

As Mrs Reding, the Commissioner puts it,

It will be a good opportunity to remind people what the European Union can do for every one of us.

Ooo, I am sure that you can provide a list of all those things

A healthy Physic for our 'feral youth'

There has been an awful lot of commentary over the last few days about this strange breed of young hoodlums. So here is something from the Chelsea Physic Garden that might possibly point a way forward.

The Physic Garden has to the country's least flashy great garden. It is a working garden and as such is not replete with great blooms, but concentrates on the medicinal often poisonous and largely humdrum. It is a fascinating place and I can only advise a visit.

When you arrive (if you come with a child in tow) they will hand you a pice of A4 paper headed,

Adults with Children

Reading what it says makes me think that there are ways to help solve our problems. If this institution can take such a sensible line, then others can do so to.

It goes on,

"If you do not feel you can abide by these rules please do not visit the garden"

The rules,

• Children must be closely supervised at all times. This means within physical reach not just within sight for children under 8.


• Scooters, bikes, buggies etc, must be left, at the owners own risk, behind the entry kiosk, or carried.


• Strictly no running.


• Strictly no bare feet, shoes must be worn at all times.


• No gravel to be thrown or deliberately unsettled


• No pond 'dipping', collecting tadpoles, removing or disturbing plant or wildlife in the two ponds.


• No climbing on any part of the Pond Rockery


• No climbing trees


• No ball games


• Children must be kept away from the edges of the pond rockery and water tank


• No plant stuff may be picked up from the garden including fruit, flowers, cones,twigs, branches, leaves, seeds etc


• No walking on, or disturbance of, any plant beds whether they appear planted or not. If a child is found by a Garden member of staff or volunteer trampling on a plant bed, their group will be asked to leave the garden immediately.

Don't get the idea they don't like children. They have an excellent outreach program and have essentially been an educational establishment for 350 years.

Where they differ from so much of the modern world is that they regard themselves as serious, and see no need to dumb down or kow-tow to the prevailing winds of kiddy friendly non-judgementalism that so bedevils most of our institutions (been to the Science Museum recently? I rest my case).

As they point out,

"You are welcome to bring children to the Garden if they are with you at all times. They are not allowed to wander off on their own. If you think the children in your charge are in a boisterous mood we recommend you visit on another day".

One rather fine thing about this, since they have produced this little aide memoire to responsible parenting all the vile and ugly safety signage that disfigured the garden has been taken down.

The mind boggles

Philippines acts on MILF infighting

Should children be protected from bad news?

While bringing up children I have always thought that it is important to note that they deserve honesty. That if there are unpleasant facts that they have to face then they should be introduced to them with care and consideration, but that one shouldn't shy away from the dark and pretend that all is lovely all the time.

But, but I am not sure if even I at my most brutal would have done this... 600 children were forced to take part in

‘A summer meeting with the euro’

You can imagine their horror when they arrived,

Two unquestionable highlights included a numismatic exposition of euro circulation coins and a magnetic map of Europe on which children had to assign the national reverse side of coins to individual countries. Participants also greatly enjoyed playing working on puzzles depicting euro banknotes.

Still I suppose a lecture on the bailouts would have been too too much.

How we are seen abroad

Here is the Berliner Zeitung,

"The country has lost faith in every authority: the banks, politicians, the media, the police. The corruption has reached even the smallest unit -- the family. There is a generation growing up without values of any kind."

and

"Even when the fires are quelled and the streets are cleaned, the deeper problems will remain. Britain must have a debate over its values. They actually need someone like [controversial German anti-immigration author] Thilo Sarrazin who speaks the uncomfortable truths. Perhaps David Cameron, the super-rich prime minister with the baroness wife, who now has to lead Britain through hard times, would be a good person to do some plain talking. But everything will probably remain the same. The Brits will fall back into their standard stoic mentality. 'Keep Calm and Carry On.' Until the next riot."

Amused by the Blitz reference.

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"British Prime Minister David Cameron called the excesses 'criminality pure and simple.' … But his statements are too simple. And they distract from what lies behind the overwhelming violence: the frustration over the British elite."

"The British elite has systematically compromised itself in recent years. They claimed to be a role model, or at least trustworthy. In the economic crisis the financial establishment declared bankruptcy, and British politicians became mired in the expenses scandal of 2009. Then this year the media and politicians have been damaged by the Murdoch scandal. When the country's elites don't take the law seriously, why should we? No question is more dangerous for a society."

While the Süddeutsche Zeitung has a different take,

"Behind the glittering facade that Britain presents, so much pent-up irritation, resentment and anger has built up that all it took was a spark to trigger an explosion."

"It is no coincidence that intelligent observers are drawing parallels between the popular uprisings taking place in the Arab spring and the street battles of this London summer. The British teens, with their hooded tops may be the citizens of a functioning democracy which is proud of being the world's oldest. But elections mean nothing to them and will not do anything to change their personal situation. The prospects of these youth in London are as dismal as those of young people in Cairo or Sana'a: They need unemployment benefits, odd jobs, state handouts and perhaps a bit of petty crime to stay afloat. The message to the British underclass couldn't be any clearer: Born poor, you will remain poor and that naturally also applies to your children and grandchildren. Your chances of winning the lottery are greater than breaking out of your class."

"In no other country in Europe is inequality as cemented in society as in the United Kingdom. Today, as in the past, a person's name, family and place of birth is decisive when it comes to establishing a career. Regardless whether a person is a politician, executive or journalist, they all went to the same schools, studied the same subjects and speak the same refined English they were taught by their parents."

Whilst there is some truth in these caricatures, they are extremely reminicent of the views of the German media in the late 30s.

Greek welcomes its new masters, led by a German!!

Within the month the new Government of Greece will arrive and take up their positions,

The European Commission has set up a task force to oversee the implementation of austerity measures and structural reforms, according to documents seen by Kathimerini.

The task force, an initiative of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, is to have two headquarters - in Athens and Brussels - and direct contact with Barroso’s office and that of Prime Minister George Papandreou. The Athens office will be the point of reference for all visiting inspectors currently offering technical advice to different ministries.

An additional 25 officials, members of the new task force, are to start arriving in Athens in the second half of August.

Make no bones about it, this team of 25 is the new Government of Greece,

According to sources, the decision to create the task force was prompted by the government’s failure to implement measures pledged in exchange for the first 110-billion-euro bailout in May last year. Greece’s creditors - the EC, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund - clearly deemed that a foreign task force would help push through a new slew of measures approved.

After all if the Greeks vote against the measures being demanded of them this new body seems to have the power to overule them.

Astonishingly the Commission has decided that the person to run this new Government will be a German, Horst Reichenbach. The decison to take a long time Commission official who hails from Kiel, will no doubt be greeted by the Greeks with all the equaminty that such a decision requires.

After all there is no bad blood between the two nations.

I can only guess that this was done to placate Mrs Merkle. I cannot be persuaded that Barroso would be so cloth-eared himself.

European Parliament agog with gossip

Wow,

Quite the most outrageous email resignation I have ever seen popped into all 6,000 internal mail boxes. Purporting to come from an official working in the Queastors office it makes a series of allegations against senior staff and reasons for employment, (Names removed to spare etc....)

Update
After speaking to a number of people about this I think it is only fair to point out that the official in question has not been well, and as such should be protected. To that end I am removing the email.

However I do think that though this email was extreme, and fairly fruity I think that it touches on a problem that has for long been felt to bedevill certain aspects of prefferment in the Parliament. Whilst the casting couch is infamous in certain business sectors, and is reprehensible, it is doubly so in the public sector. I don't think that those who are named in this mail are in any way guilty as charged, but the Parliament would do well to look into the question properly.