The Met Office

The Met Office is at least supposed to be able to get the short term forecasts correct but thankfully it failed to do so for London yesterday. There was no predicted rain and indeed there has been no predicted rain today either. Instead we had an easterly wind yesterday which is blowing again today with some strength. If this is the quality of their forecasting then is it any wonder there are a considerable number of people who doubt the Met Office about climate warming and in particular man's involvement in it. This is worrying when the government is planning to spend a great amount of our money on all sorts of alternative energy schemes that science has not yet proven are necessary or even desirable. Certainly wind farms are not only a blight on the landscape and should be banned for that reason alone but they are a waste of time and a huge waste of money. Not that the one and only and I hope last green MP would agree with me. An eco fascist if ever there was one since she does not approve of the way we live and wants to change our life styles dramatically. I watched her party political broadcast the other evening by mistake the other evening. Before I turned it off I was somewhat surprised to learn that she has a high oratorical ability. She of course did the usual thing of claiming that she is not like other politicians and will not stoop to their level but that part of her speech that I listened to was indeed a politician's speech of some quality. In other words only fools will think she is not like all other politicians.     

Wedding Bells in London

Despite living only a mile away from Buckingham Palace everything here is very quiet. Not even the big party in Duke of York Square to celebrate the wedding has disturbed the day's tranquility. The only sounds to interrupt the peace were the mini buses used to transport the wedding guests from the Abbey to the Palace and a number of horses passing by early this morning. Later we heard the flypast. The threatened rain never materialised and it is now a nice sunny evening. Should Sam Cam have worn a hat or were the jewels in her hair enough? Should that pain in the backside Peter Hain have tweeted as he did about the lack of coverage of Ed Miliband? Certainly Victoria and David Beckham and Elton John and Furnish had more coverage but then they are not republicans like Ed Miliband. The Bishop of London made an intelligent and thought provoking address which was exactly right for this time. A pity in my view that he did not become Archbishop of Canterbury. Meanwhile in the rest of the world there have been anti regime demonstrations in Syria, further fighting in Libya including an attack on Tunisia and rescue and mopping up operations in the USA following the tornadoes and floods visited upon it. Let us not forget Japan either which although not reported here is suffering anything up to three earthquakes a day.      

Blair and Brown

What is the true reason behind the failure to invite Blair and Brown to the wedding? Is it the given fact that neither of them is a Knight of the Garter or is it because they were both guilty of lese-majeste on more than one occasion. I strongly suspect that the latter is the real reason and I have to say that I admire the Palace for courting the criticism that they must have known was coming as a result of their decision. They have clearly demonstrated that they still can deliver a sting in the tail if they think they are being cut out of their constitutional rights. Perhaps not only is this intended as a slap in the face for Blair and Brown and their spouses but also a warning to the present government to be ultra cautious when considering further changes to the constitution, particularly the House of Lords and the Church of England. The press so far seem to have missed this message.

Yemen

Although it seems many protesters are opposed to the solution brokered between the ruling party and the Parliamentary opposition in Yemen the deal looks as if it will be signed in Saudi Arabia today. The protesters want the President to resign and be arrested immediately whereas the deal allows him to remain in office for 30 days and for new presidential elections to be held within 2 months. The deal has been worked out by the Gulf Cooperation Council and is supported by the USA and EU countries including it is supposed the UK. Is this a pattern that will be followed elsewhere in the region, for example in Bahrain? Is something similar being worked on by the Arab League who now, without specifically as far as I can see mentioning it by name, seem to be condemning Syria for its brutal suppression of its citizens. One can only hope so for the sake of a cessation to all the violence although it is difficult to see people like Butcher Assad and Mad Dog Gaddafi agreeing to any negotiations until they face the abyss, in other words until they have effectively been beaten militarily. It is amazing that with all this turmoil in the Arab world we have heard virtually nothing from Israel which makes one think that they are playing a shrewd game in order not to upset their hopes of having, if all goes well, some truly democratic neighbours to deal with in future.  

Lies, Damned Lies and Lib Dems

One might have thought that by being in government the Lib Dems would be rather more responsible with their election statements but no. they have reverted to type. According to them the cost of running an AV election will be no more than the cost of running a first past the post one. Common sense though tells us that an AV election is bound to be more expensive since there are going to be all the different preference votes to count. The Lib Dems are also furious that the role and indeed the impartiality of the Electoral Reform Society and of its subsidiary the Electoral Reform Services Limited are being questioned since ERS will gain financially from the referendum as they are involved in running it and yet have donated £1million to the YestoAV campaign. Clegg's and Huhne's references to Tory lies and so on should just be seen as the cheap shots that Lib Dems love to involve themselves in.   

Anger

Archbishop Cranmer on his blog http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.com/ has the most horrific footage of the damage to humans resulting from Assad's attacks on his own citizens. Anger and hatred against Butcher Assad were my reactions to this truly sickening film. What on earth gives anyone the right to attack their unarmed citizens in this way? If the dissidents were armed and were mounting an attack on the forces of a democratically elected government then of course you would expect the government forces to open fire. But what is happening is barbaric and anything which gives the Butcher, the Mad Dog, the President of Yemen and other despots any international legitimacy of whatever kind must be withdrawn and we must remonstrate with them with the greatest vigour. Syria is a surrogate for Iran and there would be a great advantage in testing Iran's nerve by doing to Syria what is currently being done by NATO in Libya. A message also has to go out to the pirates in the Gulf from the US and its allies that all further attacks on shipping will be met with force - an ideal target for drones surely. Under Bummer though the US seems to be paralysed and unable to take any action. We can only hope he loses the next Presidential election and is replaced by someone who is prepared to act.     

St George's Day

Today we celebrate the anniversary of the death of St George or so do those of us who have him as their patron saint as he is the patron saint of not only England. He was born a Christian in Syria, became a soldier in Diocletian's army and a Tribune and because he would not recant his religion was put to death, so they say, in 303 when Diocletian refused to continue tolerating Christians in his army. St George was beheaded in front of the walls of Nicomedia (now Izmit in Turkey) having been tortured several times beforehand. Curious isn't it that all these years later barbarism is alive and well, indeed thriving, in these ancient places. Even today the Syrians are firing on and killing mourners at the funerals of those they killed as they exited the mosques yesterday. Evolution there may be but it is quite unnoticeable when it comes to beastliness being visited on men by men, often in the name of religion. St George became a saint because he refused to deny his Christianity. What would he say today about the efforts of the new branch of the IRA and its campaign to kill policemen? What would he say about the Muslim extremists blowing themselves up and their enemies? We imagine he lived in a world where violence was a part of everyday life but was it when everyone had to worry about whether there was enough necessaries to survive and also about their health. Might it have been a more compassionate society?