Wednesday, July 26, 2006
U.S. cruise missile designs leaked
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Dear BBC: This is why the MiliCard is pointless (by me)
Submitted as a response to today's Any Questions:
I am somewhat disappointed that none of your panellists mentioned that the major problem with Personal Carbon Allowances is that they are already largely redundant.
As an EU member, we are already a member of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, which charges businesses for the carbon they emit. As most ordinary citizens' carbon emissions are emitted on their behalf by businesses, surely it makes sense to charge the businesses rather than the individuals and have the carbon cost encluded in the price? This is by far the most cost-efficient way of acheiving this - we don't make private citizens pay their own VAT bills, for example.
If we classify end-user sales of fuel - such as petrol - as carbon emissions, then short of charging people for breathing in and out, practically all of an individual's carbon emissions will be accounted for.
To answer another of your panellists' points - it doesn't matter whether those who meet the carbon reduction are considered rich or poor - what does matter however is that we use revenue from the scheme to alleviate poverty by reducing taxes and raising personal allowances for our poorest citizens.
Friday, July 21, 2006
Support eDemocracy: tell Jack Straw he's a cretin
James Graham over at Quaequam Blog! has set up this pledge at PledgeBank:
Jack Straw yesterday launched an outspoken attack on http://TheyWorkForYou.com, claiming that it is distorting they way MPs conduct their business. See: http://www.epolitix.com/EN/News/200607/d...You can sign said pledge here, safe in the knowledge that 100 other people will call Jack Straw a cretin if you do - including one Guido Fawkes who has blogged on Straw's idiocy here.
This is patent nonsense. MPs are responsible for their own actions. TheyWorkForYou is a valuable contribution to our civil society, allowing us access to debates and MP's questions in a useable format that Parliament itself has been unwilling to provide itself.
What I'm asking people to do is to write to Jack Straw to (politely) tell him he's tilting at the wrong windmill here, and to insist that he takes part in the consultation exercise that theyworkforyou have already initiated on how to improve the way they measure MPs work. In particular, call for him to attend their public meeting on 7 November to discuss precisely this issue, rather than making potshots from his position of safety behind the despatch box.
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