The Political Thread

[Frank]

Landslide for Mugabe! The bookies must be smarting after that shocker.

[Dudley]

The battle between Chomsky & Zizek is a battle more about how much time we're willing to spend listening to them when we could be doing something else than it is about theory versus pragmatism:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWRqPbwwYS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ1ylGxGBF4

It's also about Chomsky delivering a brilliantly written knockout blow to a few statements given off-the-cuff in a Q&A with Zizek, half of which Zizek thinks were recorded incorrectly.  So you read Chomsky's rebuttal thinking, "Yes, this is great" and then read Zizek's response thinking "Bugger, Chomsky just made a complete tit of himself, didn't he?"

[NapalmKev]

http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23662583

Cameron makes the case for 'Fracking'!

I think this an absolutely shit idea for a couple of reasons:

To say that environmental damage will be minimal as long as everything is properly regulated, seems a bit of a lie to be honest. Any kind of underground drilling has profound consequences, and regulation (banks) is just a nice word to put the public at ease.

And to drill for the gas will take a massive amount of energy (oil), the cost of which would probably be factored into 'future shale gas' prices; so probably more expensive than what people are already paying.

I realise some of you may have a deeper understanding on the subject, but to me it all sounds a bit fucking pointless!

Cheers

[Jim_Campbell]

The fracking companies have already said that, contrary to Cameron and Osborne's claims, fracking won't cut energy bills.

What it does seem quite likely to do is put up water bills.

(Keep in mind that we — in a country where it rains all the fucking time — pay more for domestic water than Spain or Italy, thanks to the rampant profiteering of the private water companies...)

It does seem a little bloody-minded that if, as a nation, we are determined to look to fossil hydrocarbons as at least a short term fix to energy supply problems, we should so comprehensively ignore the fact that we live on island made of coal.

In fact, 40% of our electricity is still made by burning coal, but we import most of it because domestic coal is too expensive. Be nice if the coal industry got a big, fat tax break like the frackers, eh? Particularly since we seem to be on the verge of CO2-free combustion of coal.

Still, mining's a bit of a politically charged issue and no one wants to develop a sensible energy policy if it might cause a bit of a fuss...

Cheers

Jim

[Recrewt]

Ha!  I'm sure I read somewhere recently that part of the increase in fuel costs that we have seen of late have been down to Government interference with things like setting up wind farms and making energy companies provide cheap insulation for homes.  All of which have had little actual effect on CO2 emissions. 

I don't really know much about fracking but like many folks I have seen those videos on youtube where people have been able to set light to the water coming out of their taps.  So, it seems that there can be some impact with it!

[Professor Bear]

Fracking is basically five different catastrophes waiting to happen at any one time, and the more fracking sites there are and the bigger they get, the more likely one or more of those disasters becomes - that's just basic statistical probability, too, I'm not even bringing the need for corporations to cut costs and culpability at a legal level through lobbying into things there - but a better understanding of the subject is largely unnecessary as you just have to look at Cameron's face - especially his dead eyes - to know he is not on your side, he is not like us, and nothing he does is for our benefit.

I thought "fair play" when people started talking about restricting the amount of rape/child pornography on the web, but then Cameron threw his weight behind it and bells started ringing, and sure enough the actual legislation proposed is a mess of Orwellian proportions that will stop households accessing everything from sexual health to Wikipedia pages, ushering in the long-delayed age of web puritanism wanted by corporations and "moral guardians".  The man is such a greasy, untrustworthy little shit* that he has somehow taken the words "child porn is bad" and made them a lie, and just to remind you what a piece of work he really is, he has used actual murdered children to push this agenda and grab himself headlines while doing so.

But on the whole, though, I think this government has been good for us.  I don't just mean because we'd gotten to the point where we said "anything would be better than 4 more years of Labour" so we clearly needed reminding, I mean it was also good to see what a colossal betrayal and waste of time the Lib Dems are.  Labour may be greedy, unreliable, borderline-corrupt, criminally incompetent warmongers, but at least they know what a sausage roll is.


* IMO.

[Dandontdare]

What it does seem quite likely to do is put up water bills.

and get ready for drained reservoirs and aquifers leading to permanent hosepipe bans: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water. Which they will then use this as an excuse to put up bills because they need the 'investment' in improvements

[Professor Bear]

Apropos of nothing, I watched a cartoon yesterday where a character mentioned in passing how the Hopi built their cities into south-facing cliffs so as to maximise their exposure to the sun.  Strange to think that even barely-lingual savages a thousand years ago knew they needed more energy-efficient homes.

[M.I.K.]

Apropos of nothing, I watched a cartoon yesterday where a character mentioned in passing how the Hopi built their cities into south-facing cliffs so as to maximise their exposure to the sun.  Strange to think that even barely-lingual savages a thousand years ago knew they needed more energy-efficient homes.

I think that might be a teeny bit racist or milleniumist or something. Cities suggest 'civilised' and organisational skills you don't get from being barely-lingual.

[Richmond Clements]

Apropos of nothing, I watched a cartoon yesterday where a character mentioned in passing how the Hopi built their cities into south-facing cliffs so as to maximise their exposure to the sun.  Strange to think that even barely-lingual savages a thousand years ago knew they needed more energy-efficient homes.

I think that might be a teeny bit racist or milleniumist or something. Cities suggest 'civilised' and organisational skills you don't get from being barely-lingual.

Or perhaps a teeny bit tongue in cheek...

[M.I.K.]

Oh. Fair enough then. Slight headache and blehness means I'm a bit slow on the uptake today.

[Old Tankie]

Frack away, I say!!  Until someone can explain to me how a wind farm can replace the gas that goes into my boiler and radiators that keep me toasty warm, I'm quite happy to stay with coal, nuclear and any other system that works.  Come on you clever lot, how does a wind farm supply heating to 60 million people?  I really want to know.

[Richmond Clements]

Frack away, I say!!  Until someone can explain to me how a wind farm can replace the gas that goes into my boiler and radiators that keep me toasty warm, I'm quite happy to stay with coal, nuclear and any other system that works.  Come on you clever lot, how does a wind farm supply heating to 60 million people?  I really want to know.

Have you tried the internet?
http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/wind-power.htm

[NapalmKev]

Frack away, I say!!  Until someone can explain to me how a wind farm can replace the gas that goes into my boiler and radiators that keep me toasty warm, I'm quite happy to stay with coal, nuclear and any other system that works.  Come on you clever lot, how does a wind farm supply heating to 60 million people?  I really want to know.

With proper investment hydro-power and wind farms could be more than viable, and a lot less destructive.

If 'keeping warm' is your main concern you should try wearing a coat - this would be cheaper, and again; a lot less destructive to the environment.

Cheers

[Old Tankie]

Thanks for the link, Richmond, very interesting but I've got a gas pipe coming into my house from the road, into my recently purchased expensive gas boiler which then warms the pipes to my radiators.  How is all that lot replaced by a wind turbine?  How much is it going to cost me?  I need to know, I'm on a budget!  I was talking about heating not lighting, most of us have got gas boilers, who's going to pay to replace them all with something that lets all that wind in?