Sexuality

Are we still suffering from Victorian ‘moral values’ here in the UK? That hypocritical mindset which insisted on good manners and propriety while record numbers of women walked the streets amid endemic poverty and ill health.

The MOD has decided (in 2006 ffs) that it really should make an effort to “rid the armed forces of sexual harassment”. Welcome to the twentieth century guys. Please try and catch up. I spent 6 years or so in the RAF as a younger man and can honestly say that I saw very little harassment of a sexual or racial nature. I don’t know if this is because my trade required a certain standard of education and as such I didn’t mix with the hoi polloi but I was genuinely shocked with the survey which found that 99% of servicewomen had witnessed or experienced some form of harassment and that many who reported it felt that their careers suffered as a result. It’s all very disturbing.

On the other side of the coin, Lynett Burgess in Wales has been cleared of indecent exposure after her male neighbour complained about her nude sunbathing. I do wonder if the result would have been the same had the complainant been female, the sunbather male. I’m going to go out over the weekend and…… no I’m not. No really, I'm NOT.

And the PM’s been talking about sex. Bleuuuuuuuuuuugh.

Puzzled

What the crap is going on at the big House? The Education Bill, which is hugely unpopular with everyone outside the Blairite Junta has just passed its third reading and despite a large rebellion within the Labour Party, because David Cameron (whose job title is Leader of the OPPOSITION) decided that his party would support the government.

What the fuck???

Where has the dishonour gone? To hell with the Education Act, we can have another one of them knocked up soon enough, defeat this evening could have, probably would have meant the end of Bliar. The end of that lying, manipulative, pathetic excuse for a PM. Only yesterday Cameron was quite rightly, laying into Tony for the shambles at the Home Office (a shambles that goes on shambling) but today they’re best mates again. How does that work? If Cameron had led his sheep through the ‘nay’ gate this evening and triggered the end of Bliar he would have been carried aloft around the streets of Britain. Municipal buildings would have been named after him, there would have been a street parties everywhere. I might even have cracked open a bottle of the champagne I'm saving for when Mrs Thatcher dies. (Seriously people, the day she croaks just turn up at mine, it'll be a blast.) Maybe we’d have got a new bank holiday even – who knows? But he blew it. Why? Does anyone have a clue?

Only house I’m talking about from now is the Big Brother house. At least they know how to 'ave a fight. Please vote Bunn-eh out; please, for little ol' me. She's the stupidest woman ever to appear on TV. Stupider even than Fearne Cotton. I could weep.

On holiday

Back soon lovely people.

Come on you Spurs!!

A burning issue

Or a disgrace?

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realise that we cannot eat money. Sioux prophecy.

£1bn windfall from carbon trading

Power firms could make a £1bn windfall profit from the EU Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme, BBC News has learned. The windfall is likely because many firms have benefited from increases in electricity prices brought about by the scheme without needing to make any extra investment in return. Peter Bedson, from IPA Consulting, confirmed to the BBC that the unwarranted profit could reach £1bn.

Environmental pressure groups have called the news a scandal.

Part of the problem, Mr Bedson said, is that firms have been given, free-of-charge, the carbon emissions permits on which the scheme is based. This, he explained, is like the government giving energy firms free money. The WWF pressure group has demanded a windfall tax to re-direct the profits into energy conservation.

The Conservatives said it was an example of government incompetence. Their environment spokesman Peter Ainsworth said: "MPs warned the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) this would happen but they took no notice."

The windfall lies in the design of the EU emissions trading scheme, which works by governments setting a limit for the total amount of carbon that can be emitted from its heavy industry and the power sectors. Instead of banning firms from exceeding the limit, governments hand the firms free pollution allowances up to a certain level. If a firm can cheaply cut its pollution by installing better technology it will have carbon permits to spare. If another firm is overshooting its pollution limit it will need to get hold of extra allowances. The firms can then trade carbon permits on the EU market.

Economists like it because it gives maximum pollution savings at least cost. But a true market scheme would see the permits auctioned, not given away by governments.

It's our children who will pay.

Workers of all countries, Unite!

Happy May Day.