Long gone yet still to come

A very strange week. I’ve not had time to do any of my usual reading. Even WUWT has had to suffice with a cursory glance. Now longannet is cancelling the ridiculous CO2 capture scheme and good riddance. Fundamentally it seemed absurd to me to reduce the efficiency of power stations to “save the world”. How is burning more limited fossil fuels “saving the world”. Moreover, I really do not believe that CO2 would stay locked away. It’s like a bottle of UHT milk, it lasts forever until the seal is broken, and then it’s just a matter of time before it goes off. It will leak out and who’s going to clear up the mess? The power company won’t be responsible – or if they are they will shelve that responsibility somehow.
So, common sense seems to be returning to government at long last. And offshore wind is also under scrutiny (and guess who were the ones pushing it … yes the oil companies! … those people that are so willing to hand us sceptics billions). I remember when I was trying to convince people that they needed a simple fast system that could respond to breakdowns at sea almost as easily as on land. What was the response? Something simple? No! A massive massive all singing all dancing boat which can only just be afforded to put the turbines up and certainly can’t shuffle around like the land drover for day to day maintenance.
This wasn’t people looking for a solution to the known problem of breakdowns, it was a offshore shipbuilders trying to sell their expensive ready made solution and pushing offshore wind because they could see a handsome profit … all paid for by the taxpayer/electricity user. Less tapping into an energy source, more tapping into a rich vein of hysteria and milking it for all they can get.
Perhaps a far better story is the cuts in the Biased Broadcasting Company. The BBC is notorious for stories of ridiculous petty infighting politics. No doubt the extremist zealotry of global warming it exhibited is just part of those backroom PC battles, fuelled by an excess of executives with nothing better to do than push PC nonsense. Just typical of the madness in the BBC is the way BBC presenters are not allowed glasses on set because they might be dangerous. Which makes me wonder what they say about war reporting with live ammo exploding all around? Perhaps it also includes glasses as in spectacles, because they could fall off break, and then in their blindness, they might just cut themselves …. obviously not because the PC culture in the BBC can’t possibly be prejudiced against the optically impaired, whereas being prejudiced against the pragmatics, the millions of people who drink from glasses without dying in society, those who can’t understand what the point of BBC elf and safety is … well, us “daredevils” who don’t worry about the minuscule risk like drinking from glass tend to be men, and the BBC hate men and so can be overtly anti-men (woman’s hour) … but I digress.
I was struck by the idea that BBC Mersey has less staff than You and Yours. What are they all doing on You and Yours? Why haven’t they ever found time to look at the arguments against alarmism? (silly question) I also find it incredible that BBC Scotland doesn’t have any local radio for the main cities (although all Radio Scotland could be said to be local as it is in Glasgow), but what about Aberdeen, Dundee? If these cities were in England they would have not only their national radio, but also their local radio. But Scotland only has a national radio!
It really is symptomatic of English ignorance. E.g. my nephews were surprised to meet some Scots with a different accent to ours!!! They couldn’t understand that two Scots could speak so differently. It took a long time to convince them that the Aberdeen accent was as far apart from Glasgow as Manchester is to Birmingham – two areas with many local radios in between!!!
But it is “what is to come” that has really been occupying me this week. The new organisation is already beginning to feel like it exists.
OK, the logo & name are particularly challenging. What is the “quintessential nature” of scepticism, realism, pragmatism or whatever we are? How does one encapsulate all we stand for in a symbol? One that can be understood by our target group (politicians) and not just an “in” idea.
But timescale is daunting. Practically, the political system shuts down at Xmas and the winter recess means that if we delay too long we will not have a chance to start campaigning before New Year. We need to be up and running before winter, and practically that means getting the basics in place by the end of October/beginning of November, we’ve already started putting feelers out for meetings to coordinate activity and learn from others, but that still leaves an awful lot of work to be done and we haven’t even got the basics like a name, let alone funding.
But much more importantly is people. What are individuals prepared to offer in way of support? Scotland needs scepticism, not just to combat the madness of climate change alarmism, but because it is just the tip of the iceberg of a whole raft of similar absurdities, not least BBC elf & safety. And the cost! Already my phone bill is beginning to sky rocket (yet further evidence of the effect of manmade global warming?) And the small things like pens and paper, and time is beginning to add up. Which reminds me, I need to find my whiteboard.
And finally, I can see that something is going to have to give. This blog has been enjoyable, but the effort is needed elsewhere. I’m afraid my blog past will be as common as peak output from a windmill — few and far between.