What has happened to The Times?

You read insanity like this and wonder. He claims to be a "non-socialist economist". I'd hate to see what a socialist economist comes up with that is worse that state confiscation of private individual savings. Kaletsky has been wobbling for quite some time and has finally wobbled Left into a deep hole.

The comments to the article sum it up nicely. People like Kaletsky are the reason why I despise people who blindly trust 'experts' to solve all their problems.

Two things, thankfully, which will work against any efforts by the state to do this:

One, the power of the elderly voting block. These people rely on savings to supplement the pensions that Brown destroyed in 1997. Labour would be massacred by the grey vote at a general election if they tried this.

Two, I and everyone else who isn't a cretin will be straight down to the bank if even a whif of this comes out of the Treasury. I will draw out my money with everyone else and f*ck the banking system.

Update:

One further comment - as far as I know, the British government didn't confiscate private savings even in 1940, when we faced the greatest crisis in our history. Yet Anatole "I'm a non-socialist economist" Kaletsky wants our very own lite version of War Communism applied because Woolworths and sundry other over-extended retailers have gone bust.

That little pop you heard was the last, tiny remnants of this man's credibility disappearing. He's only there for giggles now.

What is wrong with these people?

Would they rather the plane crashed with them on board?

parents were shouting and screaming and there were women and children crying.

Apparently, there were adults present but this makes you think there weren't. Again, were they demanding the plane flew regardless of how dangerous the weather conditions were?

These people are lunatics. Get a grip.

Who will rid us of this meddlesome druid?

Rowan the Happy Druid is at it again. Its a mystery how a socialist got on to the Today programme to talk about how we are all consumed by greed, but that's by the by. This is another example of recession porn, liberals and leftists getting their rocks off by welcoming what is going to be a Depression. For them, it is a triumphant vindication of their beliefs, and there's no-one more smugly triumphant than a progressive liberal.

Williams talks of the depression as a "welcome reality-check". Personally, I'd trust his opinion on reality as much as I'd trust a cat's opinion on Bach. His past pronouncements have not exactly screwed his reputation to the sticking-plate of reality. This is the man, after all, who thought (thinks) Sharia Law is inevitable in the UK.

Still, back to the "welcome reality check". It is a welcome reality check to all the progressive liberals who have become rich on the system they so profess to despise, and who are so completely insulated from the hurricane which will shortly flatten our economy that they can afford to indulge in most public and unseemly gloating. If you live in an enormous palace on the banks of the Thames, enjoy a very, very comfortable salary and have servants to assist your every want, why it is easy to enjoy the "reality check" from your lofty seat.

For the poor bugger who has lost his job, or is living in fear that he will lose his job, "reality" is not so welcome. In fact, the "reality" of "unsustainable greed" which the Archdruid alludes to is not a reality at all, but a progressive liberal fantasy. The average Joe in Britain is so crushed by taxes (truly the unsustainable greed!) and the cost of living that he can barely provide for his family, let alone indulge in the Archdruid's fantasy of hedonistic consumption. If Williams stepped out of his socialist fantasy for fifteen seconds he would see the truth of this, but there is no room at the Inn for unwelcome truths.

The meme is entrenched, the progressives dominate the establishment and the media, and an awful lot of people are going to hurt a great deal as the libs sate their pious lust to blame anyone except themselves. I loathe each and every one of them.

It Certainly Could (giggle)

Climate Bill 'Could lead world':

Here.

Yes, it certainly would, but not in the way the greens and other assorted extreme leftists imagine. This is from the same source which gave us unilateral disarmament for the UK - the idea that rational actors abroad will set aside their own interests and hurt themselves just because they see some pious idiots on the other side of the world doing it. For me, to continue to think this way betrays signs of a disturbing mental illness. The mixture of a messianic complex and extreme naiveity is remarkable.

Anyway, back to the original point. Such a bill would, indeed, lead the world. Scotland would become the first industrialised country EVER to beggar itself into a pastoral, starving existence for no other reason than cultural suicide. One could say that Scotland is on its way to beggaring itself anyway, but us south of the Tweed cannot feel so smug about that these days as our own Clan is desperately doing the same to us. The real irony, though, is whatever carbon savings Scotland makes to offset against their economic and cultural collapse would be wiped out by an over-exuberant celebration of the Chinese New Year in a couple of suburbs of Shanghai.

In short, it is pointless and tremendously dangerous. Only the mad or very small children think like this.

UPDATE: One has to admire the impartial way the BBC wrote this article. There is no opposition to this proposal, not a single word of criticism. It is a press release for environmentalists, no more, no less.

A great headline

Here. The maths are beyond me, but I expect they are beyond the people who thought up the 80% cut. I blogged on this earlier - we can beggar our economies to reach this impossible millstone (no mispelling), only to see the carbon savings we made wiped out by more people than expected tuning in to watch the Chinese Cup Final in 2038.

The dinosaur Left

This article is ludicrous enough, the sort of socialist nonsense which the fifty-year old Guardianistas will lap up in a nostalgic remembrance of the 1980s. The most laughable stuff is in the comments though.

This one from "mrbuttons" is a joy:

Capitalism is clearly collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. Now we need the ownership of the means, distribution and exchange of production in the hands of the proletariat. This means a complete state run economy adopted by every country, headed by socialist governments committed to internationalism. This will mean that we can achieve a society where a surgeon or engineer is paid the same amount as a binman or cleaner.

If you pay a surgeon the same amount as a binman or a cleaner, you will end up with a binman as a surgeon. Don't get ill, mrbuttons.

Though I assume that given the many, many references to 'proletariat' and 'workers' in your post you are a middle-class student, so under any socialist system you will neatly side-step the misery of standard state (non)provision of healthcare and instead will enjoy the service provided to the Nomenklatura.

The recession will also hasten the decline in the family as divorce and separation increase – this will break the stranglehold the family has had on revolutionary politics. The Tories scum may bang on about the family to keep the workers down and fuel their self interests but with family breakdown comes a chance for the urban street kids to get involved in building a new society.

That just seals it - bourgeois Leftie pus seeping from every pore. What a fucking nutter.

How the left debates, part 112

Usual behavour from the usual suspects, here. There is a certain schadenfreude at a socialist minister getting a taste of his own medicine, but this post is about the extremist(s) who assaulted him. Some prize quotes:

We threw the pie because we didn't want to engage in debate

Evidently. When did the Left ever engage in rational debate with its enemies? Instead, far better to chant mindless slogans and physically attack your opponents. Actual debate, and reason, exposes you to contrary viewpoints, which cannot, ever, be tolerated.

What he was spouting were right wing anti-immigration policies. The danger is that people like him are making such views mainstream.

What planet is this loony on? Does he/she/it really believe that a cap on immigration is not a mainstream political opinion? I know they are extreme leftist students, but do they actually interact with people in the real world? Oh, I think I answered my own question there.