The Emissions Trading Scheme – a conduit for fraud

One of the disadvantages of the emissions Trading Scheme launched by the European Union (and it is only one of the many disadvantages), is that the provisions of the Scheme has made Value Added tax fraud rather easy. The authorities have tried to clamp down of Value Added tax fraud but it has not been [...]

When boasting is not enough

When it comes to renewable energy Ministers in the United Kingdom have always talked a big game. They have claimed for many years that Britain is a world leader in climate change too, pointing out the Climate Change Act which makes it unlawful for governments not to reach emission reduction targets but without any penalty [...]

Will BP go the way of Arthur Anderson?

If you hurt America someone, without doubt, will suffer for it. It may not be the guilty party, but someone will pay. Iraq paid the price for the crime committed in New York at the Twin Towers, even though it had no or little connection with the crime. Arthur Anderson, then the largest audit and [...]

Trading in carbon dioxide emissions is not going to work

Mr Huhne is the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and he has told the UK Energy Summit that we need a “high carbon price” to underpin investment in green technologies. This is the sort of nonsense that Ministers are loath to spout, because it implies that a high price for emissions is [...]

Why we will never achieve success in Afghanistan

For centuries thinkers have observed that if you fight a war you must have apolitical objective, otherwise there is no point in fighting a war. A political objective can be evil or good. It can simply be to annex the territory of another nation, for its land, or to enslave its people, or to protect [...]

Burdening future generations

When talking about the budget cuts and tax increases Mr Cameron made a valid point of principle. He said that one reason to impose this austerity was that it would be unfair to burden future generations with debt spent on propping up the income and benefits of the present generation.

The UK’s new budget

I have had some time to digest the budget that was announced in the House of Commons on Tuesday – the first budget of the new UK administration. These are difficult times and it was inevitable that taxes would rise and welfare benefits would fall. Some argue that the budget has gone too far and [...]

The Scientists and Climate Change

We hear a great deal about scientists who are climate change experts. The latest report by Messrs Prall, Harold, Schneider,and Anderegg have been studying the level of consensus among scientists about anthropogenic climate change. They have examined publications by more than 1300 climate researchers on anthropogenic climate change and have found that 97 to 98% [...]

Zero Carbon is a myth

Zero Carbon is to some people a consummation devoutly to be wished and for others such stuff which dreams are made on. For me, it is a foolish fallacy that stands in the way of real climate change action.

Google say “no harm done” – nonsense!

“Who was harmed? Name the person,” Mr Schmidt of Google said, when talking about the company’s collection of private data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks. The data included passwords and chunks of email messages. Well, Mr Schmidt, if you collected my data I was harmed. You see, private information about me is exactly that. It is [...]