UK:10 Really, really silly fines

Sometimes you think that here in NZ, we suffer from stupid bureaucrats and silly rules, but this article in The Times really made Adam recoil in despair at what is happening in Britain:-

With an army of pettifogging bureaucrats policing your every move, you better think twice before you eat, talk, drive and even relax… the list is almost endless. Here we list ten ridiculous but true stories where the authorities have demonstrated their limited grasp of common sense…

The instances quoted makes you wonder whether the world has gone mad.

Quotation for today-Saturday,10 May 2008

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing

Edmund Burke - 1729 to 1797 - Irish orator, philosopher and politician

This is still relevant today, witness:-

• Darfur
• Myanmar
• Guantanomo
• Paedophile priests
• Suicide bombers

to name but several instances

Classic Blues & Jazz 2-George Melly

Alan George Heywood Melly, jazz singer, writer and broadcaster, born August 17 1926; died July 5, 2007

Adam used to read George Melly’s film reviews in the Observer many years ago. Then later when flatting in London he and friends used to go to Ronnie Scott’s club and a pub in Camden Lock amongst other places to see Melly perform, usually with John Chilton’s Feetwarmers band.

One time at Camden Lock Mr Melly came on stage in jeans, T Shirt and fedora carrying a bottle of cognac which he swigged copiously throughout

The Agri-business challenge for New Zealand!

Recently media reports have been thick and fast on how the Chinese diet is changing pushing up the demand for feed grain.

Well the Financial Times has an article on this which points out the following:

• currently, China is self sufficient in wheat
• is a small exporter of rice
• imports soy beans

this is likely to change.

What is more important is that it appears that a number of entrepreneurs in China see major opportunities in modernising farming and food production policies.

This is critical if China is to improve capability to feed more of it’s population in the medium to longer term.

Consequently this leads into a theme which Adam has postulated in a number of posts on feed issues, namely the opportunity for New Zealand to benefit from the provision of skills and expertise to countries such as China.

This has the potential to provide very considerable economic benefit to new Zealand, whilst reducing the stress on the environment here.

At the same time applying efficient NZ practices and skills in China has a number of significant benefits, including, but not necessarily limited to:-

• NZ can earn money for advice
• NZ can license techniques
• necessary research leading to more innovations and license revenues can be funded
• Carbon leakage through agriculture can be mitigated
• environmental stress from farming practices in China can be mitigated
• NZ carbon emissions may be reduced over time

Question is will NZ business step up to the challenge and the opportunity?

Not just in China, but elsewhere such as Latin America, India etc

Captions Please

Bob Clarkson Picture - Mark Mitchell NZ Herald

Friday, so a little fun!

The Battle for New Zealand

What David Lange called taking a break for tea is over. I expect that the Battle for New Zealand is about to begin. This is what Cullen has called the contest for power.Upon this battle depends the survival of Kiwi civilisation. Upon it depends our own Kiwi life, and the long continuity of our people and our ancestors. The whole fury and might of the New Zealand Labour Party and the Greens must very soon be turned on us. Clark knows that she will have to break us in this election or lose her power. If we can stand up to her, all New Zealand may be free and the life of the people may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole of our universe, including the West Island, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted social engineering and the Nanny State. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves, that if New Zealand and the National Party last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”

Background music - an instrumental version of Now is the Hour perhaps

ETS:Carbon Trading-some questions

Much has been written about the Emissions Trading Scheme in recent days.

Adam thought it might be useful to note the following item from the Financial Times, which deals with Carbon Trading:

Carbon trading was worth about $64bn last year, after a sharp rise in numbers of transactions in the fledgling market for greenhouse gases, the World Bank reckons.

In its annual review of the emissions trading market, it said the value of trades more than doubled from 2006 to 2007. The European Union’s emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) made up the bulk of the market, as it has done since its inception in January 2005.

Transactions under the EU ETS nearly doubled, as did the value of carbon permits sold by the scheme.

The article goes on to discuss various factors affecting the market and concludes:-

A further complication is that many investors in developing country projects are cautious about the prospects for the market to be able to continue after 2012. The current provisions of the Kyoto protocol expire in that year. Governments are engaged in talks scheduled to finish late next year. These are intended to forge a successor to the treaty.

“Lack of clarity [about the situation as from] post-2012 is countering growth of markets such as the EU ETS,” said Andrew Ertel, chief executive of Evolution Markets, which contributed to the report. “The market is truly at a crossroads as participants appreciate the complexity and risks of carbon trading.”

The World Bank Review is a lengthy read, at 78 pages, but on a scan through Adam noted the following:

• The EU do not include at present agriculture or transport
• Australia is seeking to develop a comprehensive scheme aligned to other Pacific economies

If this is the case, then the obvious questions are:-

• Why is NZ going it alone on agriculture?
• Why are we potentially hobbling ourselves with regard to future international negotiations? Have we not learned from the past in these matters? Other nations, for example the French and the Australians have mastered the art of achieving maximum benefit through tough negotiating postures.
• By including agriculture are we not setting ourselves up for problems in future negotiations with the EU on market access?
• Why are we not seeking to work closely with the Rudd government in Australia?
• Working with Australia and having an ETS which is essentially common would appear to be sensible as it would facilitate Australasian carbon trading and under CER would appear to be logical; plus it may reduce the scope for carbon leakage from NZ to Aussie, so why are we not doing this?
• Have we considered the problems which might emerge from having an ETS which is out of step with Australia and the EU?
• Has the government been on an eco ego trip?
• Can sanity be restored to both Labour and National before it is too late?

Adam has linked here to an FT resource page on Climate Change

Bald Eagles in Alaska

One of 10 photos from a slideshow in The Times of pictures of bald eagles in Alaska.

A change from politics, climate change and the economic realities of life.

Winston to run in Tauranga??

Mrs Smith saw a brief item on TVNZ Breakfast this a.m., apparently Bob Clarkson is not standing in Tauranga.

Will Winston run in Tauranga?

Will National let him have a better than even chance by running a lack lustre candidate, so as to improve their coalition chances if they need a post election partner?

Has the great posturer succeeded yet again in surviving?

Call Adam an old fashioned conspiracy theorist, but could this be a cunning plan on National’s part?

Nah, surely they would not? Or, would they?

One shudders to think of the price for Winston’s support!

Food Shortages:Biting views from cartoonists

Adam has posted before on the way in which through cartoons, issues can be brought to public attention. The examples which follow demonstrate this fact. To Adam’s mind they are a vivid and in some instances extremely biting critique on the issue.

From Slate -cartoons on issues of the day - Food Shortage

Again from Slate on the same issue

This above from the Slate ethanol gallery, as is this one

.

Slate has a comprehensive set of cartoon galleries on a wide range of subjects, featuring cartoons from all over the world. This enables you to see how a topic is viewed in different countries and cultures. Thus differing perspectives can be seen.

The area is entitled : Todays Cartoons and can be accessed through the News & Politics section if you cannot get the links to work.

Depending on the topic, country and publication, plus of course the cartoonist a number of these cartoons are savage in their viewpoint.

The various galleries are well worth a look.