Conservatives

Yes the term clap trap was very wrong and not meant in that context..sorry. Anyone who knows me knows my history of standing up for every section of society in real terms not through gestures.

Glenn, with the state this country is in and the economic nightmare we are going to be left with, I can appreciate the last thing on some people's minds is charity causes. The economic climate will cause a lot of problems for many charities in the coming year. I've made a point of buying my Christmas cards in the local Cancer Research shop this ... See Moreyear because of this. Plus, I found a lovely 1960s lead figurine chess set of Napolean and Wellington at Waterloo. My Son has been looking for this set for years!

Sandeep, the idea is that both work together and reach an equilibrium. Galbraith was one of the best in achieving this goal in the modern World.

I agree David, it can be a very dismal science at times.

Love your private sector!

go boris, thats just up the road from me :P

Chuckles always appreciated. Who claims to have a Doctorate in Literature, Karin? And the play on words IS childish.

MIcheal, I agree I hate it when people think everything is racist

You have to be a Labour Spy or a Nutter?!?!?!

I doubt it Daniel. Just someone who has suffered a great deal of hurt one way or another.

I think it would be best if you deleted your posts Dame Lean. They are very personal and tragic by the look of it.

low hanging fruit - to tackle convergent issue of global warming, and energy shortages.

picking low hanging fruit isn't hard. this is what i suggest:

1) create some sort of commity to look seriously at the advantage of a 4 day working week. the UK's GDP/hour worked is so abysmal compared to fellow EU top countries that it implies most british people, whatever they tell their bosses, are working on three cylinders - a general practice of presentyism is prevalent:... See More

slashing commuting by 1/5th will free up a considerable amount of space in the economy to spend on real needs - either through tax and spend or just leaving it to the people.

2) windfarms. depending on location 5 to 20 times energy returned on energy invested - windfarms are actually a low hanging fruit option for expanding energy capacity.

3) continue the efficiency drive in homes, but we have to make sure that reduced demand doesn't just create a slack that is taken up with higher prices by shareholder owned energy companies.

4) continue to increase fuel taxes (whilst possibly reducing income tax), so forcing people to consider carefully when they purchase a car, what its fuel economy is.

these are low hanging fruit policies that wont have any negative consequence to teh economy, and should be done anyway. The 4 day week would improve quality of life for millions of citizens without necessarily affecting GDP.

5) the tories irrc have a policy suggestion of smart meters that vary the price of energy according to supply on a minute by minute basis. this has proven to work at managing demand in countries where it has been tried:

this lets us operate on renewables free-er from concerns of requiring over capacity to meet periods of low supply because of the weather.

as well as smart meters, we can have smart white goods. imagine millions of freezers which shut down for upto an hour during peak electricity demand? irrc, this is a tory policy?... See More

it is scientifically ignorant to say CO2 does not drive global temperatures.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Atmospheric_Transmission.png

let me take you through this. - the three curves to the top right, represent the thermal emission profile of the earth from its equator to its high latitudes.... See More

if you look at the CO2 absorption profile, which is measurable in the lab - you can see that CO2 is 100% effective at stopping upgoing infrared around the peak of cooler parts of the world and much near the peak of hotter parts.

The affect of CO2 is to incontrovertibly boost temperatures of an object around abouts the temperature of the earth. And what has been observed - what has been predicted - warming high latitudes, and cooling upper atmosphere.

NO U