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Tuesday 29 June 2010

Len Freeman | 11:30 UK time, Tuesday, 29 June 2010

Here is what we are planning for tonight:

The man chosen by President Obama to lead the international forces in Afghanistan has warned of an escalation of violence there in the coming months. General David Petraeus has been appearing at a Senate hearing, to outline his strategy for tackling the Taliban, and handing more control of security to Afghan forces. Meanwhile David Cameron has indicated he wants British servicemen home from Afghanistan within five years. Labour's acting leader Harriet Harman yesterday warned against "artificial" timetables for withdrawing troops.

Tonight we talk to the Defence Secretary Liam Fox, who is in Washington, to find out what the priorities should be for British troops in Afghanistan and ask just how feasible a withdrawal within the next five years might be.

We will also have a special film from Lyse Doucet about life in Afghanistan's only women's prison. Badam Bagh is home to 147 women and children. We go inside, see the conditions and meet some of the inmates.

But how many of them should be in prison? Even the prison director estimates only 50%. She says many are in there because of problems in the family or personal vendettas.

Ian Watson has spent the day in Bradford, where David Cameron has been having an away day with the Cabinet - it's first meeting outside London. Ministers say they're creating a 拢1 billion fund to help English regions. But they're axing nine Regional Development Agencies - set up by Labour to support local businesses. We'll be discussing what effect that will have.

We'll also be talking about pensions. The 成人论坛 announced today a complete overhaul of its final salary scheme. The changes would dramatically reduce the pension benefits for many.

Around five million people are contributing to public sector pension schemes around the country. We'll be asking whether the proposed changes at the 成人论坛 could be a blueprint the government could use as it tries to cut spending by reducing the cost of pensions for those on the public payroll.

And two internet gurus - Clay Shirky and Alex Krotoski - will be debating whether the internet is a force for good.

Do join Gavin at 10.30 tonight on 成人论坛 Two.

Earlier today

The government is looking at ways to reduce the costs of public sector pensions and today the 成人论坛 announced a major overhaul of its final salary scheme.

From next year an employee's pensionable salary will rise by no more than 1% a year, even if that employee gets a substantial pay rise.

成人论坛 business editor Robert Peston says the plans could be a blueprint for future public-sector pension plans.

We'll be asking what that could mean for the five million people working in the public sector.

We'll also have a special film from Afghanistan about life in the country's only women's prison.


Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    On the Lib Dems:

    "They will point to today's finding that only 68 per cent of people who voted for the party last month said they would do so again. This support is more likely to go to Labour than the Tories, the ComRes survey found. "

    So at this juncture before we know whether the cuts will damage the economy people are going to be jittery and the Lib Dems highlighted that support would ebb in any event.

    But it is not credible to me in the longer run that those voters thinking about Labour would forget: Iraq; 10p; cabs for hire; failure to prepare for carbon shortfall; trying to hoist more nuclear energy on us; failure to reform the Lords; unwillingness to embrace PR; fixing boundaries in their favour; failure to improve social mobility.

    The last item is the fact that Labour were enthusiastic about financial deregulation and Blair sits on a bank board. They certainly contributed to the problems that led to the crash.

    They are utterly shameless and cynical.

    I would hope the Lib Dems will stick to their principles and the deal as Labour want to see Simon Hughes start panicking and destabilising the boat.

    Then again that is the narrative in the media and Hughes has always been pretty sensible.

  • Comment number 2.

    On pensions I would have thought many private pensions are nearly worthless and there is going to be the substantial reform of public pensions.

    Should we not have followed the Australian model where they seemed to have come up with a coherent strategy of making people pay in and it is standing the tests of time?

  • Comment number 3.

    So far as I can glean on the BNP they still can't take on new members due to their failure to comply with EHRC legal requirements on their rules being non-racial.

    I believe it remains the usual saga where they pretend they will comply and say they have been "meaning to do it for years" and then get on with calling the EHRC a sniveling quango.

    So the thing is if their membership is frozen and they took a beating at the general election and lost a lot of deposits are they financially viable?

    If they ARE taking on new members what are the legal sanctions?

    I seem to recall the Electoral Commission was chasing them on their accounts as well.

    Meanwhile "the Griff" - the odious Nick Griffin - can retain his champagne national socialist lifestyle due to those European expenses so he is individually OK.

    It all fits in with the Bertrand Russell analysis that the National Socialists were ultimately just "replacement monarchists".

  • Comment number 4.

    On the womens prison in Afghanistan I hope that they are not training up the inmates in kick boxing and so on.

    The Lyse Doucet piece on the mens prison was a jaw dropper especially when you realised that they had mobile phones available.

  • Comment number 5.

    The HuffPost have an interesting query on the latest Goldman Sachs and market analysis:

    "The next financial boom seems likely to be centered on lending to emerging markets. Sam Finkelstein, head of emerging markets debt at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, summed up the prevailing market view - and no doubt talked up his own positions - with a prominent quote in Monday's Financial Times"

    So whilst I am no economic expert and their are mixed views of how effective the Obama financial reform will be this seems like the kind of scenario that gave us the current sovereign debt crisis?

    Was it not Goldman Sachs who managed to bypass the European standards on government borrowing with regard to Greece?

    Its like being in the eye of a storm that has decided not to move on after all.

  • Comment number 6.

    the LibDems are the Marshal Petain, the Quislings etc., not of the coalition but of the broad mass of their membership.....ask a few of 'em

  • Comment number 7.

    NN still not up on iplayer? are they watching the football?

  • Comment number 8.

    on pensions, - it is exactly the same issue as the rest of the economy. Sustainable pensions require a sustainable economy, a sustainable economy is one with a small wealth-gap, with productivity profits spread around, as in cooperatives.

    the current UK Wealth-Gap is so extreme that our economy is running at barely 70% efficiency (probably far less), which is leaving millions out of work, as all the money is sitting in tax-havens instead of employing normal people in work with decent wages.

    the Meeja constantly harp on about "the boom-generation pension bomb" - yet at the same time we have between 4-8 million Brits who are not employed.

    to fill proper pension plans, we need growth. To achieve growth, we need Govt investment in new industries, and to clip the wings of the multi-nationals who are leeching off our economy and hard work.

    as for "cutting back" pension plans - yet again, same solution as for public sector wages: cut from the top first. *Everyone* deserves a good retirement - why should those, probably born to wealth anyway, had every advantage in their lives and careers, then retire on vastly higher Public Sector pensions than others born without the proverbial silver spoon?

    if we can no longer afford schools and hospitals for the People, we *certainly* cannot afford multi-拢M golden parachutes and pensions for peple like "Fred the Shred", and the Civil Servants who allowed that kind of economic destruction to go unchallenged.


    despite all the endless rhetoric about "fairness" from this Tory Govt, the last thing on their minds is REAL fairness. I know, i know - that means they are LYING to us. Shocking, isn't it??

  • Comment number 9.

    Programmed to Love
    code hacked,
    ideals cracked,
    egos wait to pounce.

    locked in by mirrors
    half-truths Pig's weapons,
    blind-man in a bog,
    tick tock tick tock tick tock.

    healing needed, who can be trusted?
    afraid of change, good or bad.
    -for what are the end results?
    ..is making errors *that* scary?

    the more damage absorbed
    the more abuse suffered
    the easier it is to hide
    in a Depression Bunker.

    self-abuse harms others
    intended, or not intended?
    Perhaps both, especially
    for the sensitive.

    the way out a caring society,
    healing and support for all.
    Instead we have rampant egos
    the Nasty having a Ball.

    Thanatos Thoughts surprising,
    in such a World? A desire to leave,
    programmed by the hatred-envy of the Betas,
    one helpless night on Lysergic acid.

    how to find Authenticity when
    so many prejudge and fake, and
    low self-esteem combines with
    ordered self-destruction?

    to find Love is to risk harming,
    to live without Love is no Life.
    to say I Am Sorry the greatest gift of all.
    even when no harm intended by the Inner Soul.

    none of us are here forever,
    all of us cause harm to each other
    and ourselves. Only to limit it
    and Honesty is needed for that.

    In the UK honesty is in short supply,
    almost none at the 'Top',
    rot at the core spreads outwards.
    *I* am sorry for any harm *i* have caused.

    but problems of Society not mine alone,
    solutions require Common Good, and Common Hard Work.
    Honesty about the problems, discussions on solutions.
    Blaming 'The Witch' heals nothing, the World is ours.

    will Egos rule,
    or will Self?
    too much Will,
    problems still.


    the strong confident person helps others,
    giving in every way possible - not uncritically.
    Healthiness Begets Healthiness, Love Begets Love,
    Niceness is NOT a weakness!!!

  • Comment number 10.

    public servant pensions are paid for by the private sector public servant wages are payed for by the private sector.

    are they worth it..........no one in the public sector should be paid more than the pm

    are the private sector numptys being ripped off

    heard from RUMour control that in one council %40 of poll tax goes on pubic serVENT pensions lovely lolly cheers suckers

  • Comment number 11.

    there is lots of 'fat' to cut from the bbc?

    the corporation pays in three times that of individual contributions.



    its a different world. all funded by us.


  • Comment number 12.

    成人论坛鈥檚 revised pension proposals.

    鈥淔rom next year an employee's pensionable salary will rise by no more than 1% a year, even if that employee gets a substantial pay rise鈥

    Will this rule still apply when that pay rise is due to a promotion, or only one within the same job?

    If the former, then it can (will) be argued that this will discourage staff (particularly those nearing retirement) from aspiring to higher office, as any raising of living standards (bigger mortgage, etc) would not be sustained by a proportional increase in future pension income. Outsiders may thus be advantaged for promotion posts.

    If the latter my experience in the remuneration field suggests that employers and unions will connive in 鈥榬estructuring鈥 exercises, aimed at creating 鈥榥ew鈥 job titles from existing ones, thus escaping the 1% cap.
    (known as a lateral arabesque).

  • Comment number 13.

    nn still not up on iplayer? staff shortage? pension sulks? :)

  • Comment number 14.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 15.

    #14 broke house rules because it was YouTube Spanish footage of a wind turbine generator and gearbox well on fire on a hill in Spain, perhaps due to a gearbox fault ( overheated bearings ) or electrical fault in the generator itself ?

  • Comment number 16.

    Perhaps you can link back from this if you so desire ?

  • Comment number 17.

  • Comment number 18.

    #17: i wouldn't trust a single word "lord" lawson utters. His economic policies were utterly disasterous, and we are STILL paying for them.

  • Comment number 19.

    Israel's hidden agenda?




    when is the World going to DO something about this situation?

  • Comment number 20.

  • Comment number 21.

  • Comment number 22.

    'David Cameron has been having an away day with the Cabinet - it's first meeting outside London.'

    There should be no apostrophe in 'its'. This is VERY basic grammar. The Newsnight team should not be making simple schoolchild errors like this, yet almost every day it does - sometimes live on TV.

  • Comment number 23.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

  • Comment number 24.

    Spies Carry On

    if MI5 did not know about the torture they are incompetent and if they did they kept quite about it which is complicity. The incompetence charge would be cheaper monetarily for the state but not for egos which would have to resign after admitting it? So its big payouts all-round ?

  • Comment number 25.

    @ Mindy #19 - you do realise that theonion.com is news SATIRE site? :p

    Lyce Doucet's report from Afghanistan was outstanding (as always) and an excellent discusion with Gavin about the justice system there. While the allies have tried to modernise their system, as Lyce and Gavin pointed out, change will take at least one generation, and it cannot be forced upon anyone.

  • Comment number 26.

    Clay Shirky (there's a joke in there somewhere)


    Why does NN give these blatant free-market anarchists so much airtime?

    Yet another Libertarian allowed to pollute our so called intelligent news television....does my licence fee really support this drivel?

  • Comment number 27.

    Good piece on the womens'
    prison in Afghanistan.
    _______
    Your studio piece about the net was rather dull.
    Your researcher should have know that the flash mob in your film clip were paying tribute to Tony Hart creator of Morph and not just messing with plastocine.

  • Comment number 28.

    Plasticine - no 'o' :)

  • Comment number 29.

    on the Afghani women in prison, here is a discussion about a previous case under the current Occupation Kabul Govt, and the Afghan legal system:



    how can it be after almost 10 years of Western intervention, 'we' have so little impressed Afghans that they STILL use the backward fundamentalist Taliban court systems? This is not even Islam - it is pre-Islamic tribalist laws and punishments. Our soldiers are DYING to defend a Govt that openly rigged its own election, and a legal system that is viewed with horror even by people in Iran under Ahmadinadjad.

    how is it that the West can spend more money per capita than the wealthiest countries in the world spend per capita on their OWN citizens in this war, yet STILL have achieved so little political and social progress? Let alone economic!


    on MI6's involvement:



  • Comment number 30.

    #25: *i'm* fully UK - satire is the very air i breath. :P

    but many times satire can reveal deeper truths - how much future conflict has Israel reduced by its blockade upon the prisoners in Gaza??

    if *you* were in the position of the people in Gaza, would you be feeling great love for the Zionist idea right now??

    Israel treating its neighbours in the way IT would like to be treated is not a bad first step towards peace.


    #26: HE - *i'm* a free market 'anarchist'!! :o

    a 'free market' requires certain rules of behaviour and information-sharing - and anarchists believe that given the right conditions (see previous), then bottom-up solutions to problems can be found. I thought he made some good points. :P


    btw, on the Afghan Women's Prison - thank you LOADS for subtitling NN, hearing their own words (even if unintelligible), made the poignancy in their words so much stronger. TY!!! Xxx


    the ending of regional development agencies: COULD be good if under the Greens - it is for sure that many of these 'agencies' are just gravy-trains - the EB4U is a good example.

    [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

    but WHO would trust the Tories to replace it with something more efficient, and cooperative modelled? It would be nice to be mistaken... and they WILL be scrutinised closely. Hopefully?

    in politics, it is a classic method of taking control by scrapping previous structures, and hand-picking members of new bodies. Again, this COULD be good, it depends if the Tories are being held to account by both Cable and the Meeja.

    But it is depressing that monies at least INTENDED for regional economic development will be cut very dramatically, at a time when even more than 'normal' regions will be screaming out for capital to start projects.

    still, must be better than capping personal income over 拢100,000 a year, right? I can *definitely* see the benefits of continuing to allow the pig-troughing by the wealthy rather than supporting mass employment across the UK that will raise living standards for ALL.

    i mean, its not like we're living in one of those hippy Liberal Democracies right?? :/

  • Comment number 31.

    EB4U link reattempted: [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]

    (profanity warning!)

  • Comment number 32.

    "Budget will cost 1.3m jobs - Treasury"




    phew, *that's* a relief - i was worried this Tory Govt could have destroyed my faith in Human (Political) nature and actually been Honest for once!!

    thankfully, that threat has been removed, and the Tories stand revealed as economic incompetents who are intending to destroy the national Economy rather than make their rich cronies pay any tax.

    scoring political points aside - how in the nether regions are we going to repair the damage these imbeciles intend to make? These are largely skilled workers and industries about to be buried, with the resultant higher welfare claims on an already apparently over-stretched system.

    whilst it is very likely that some of these Corporate schemes could be fruitfully cut (the UK Govt already pays private companies a higher share of its budget than any other country in Western Europe - a 'Corporate State'?), the more cynical part of me questions if that is indeed where these cuts will mainly come from, or will it be services to normal citizens?

    ---------

    on the Russian spying in America - BOTH sides are doing it, and US Intel had these spies tagged since 2000. So why *now* straight after a visit by Medvedev?



    --i would guess its a way of putting pressure on Russia, for some internal reason known only to US and Russian policy-makers. Boys and their games, eh?

    ---

    it is interesting that the Govt would prefer to hold its own inquiry, rather than let normal courts take their own way of investigating (and reporting?) on Brit-Intelligence activities, on the fictitious 'War on Terror'.

    the jury though, is yet still out on whether such a Govt announced Inquiry can prevent the proper legal channels from investigating this, so we shall see.





    -------------

    ken clarke should get a huge 'thumbs up' for his radically common-sense approach to the use of prisons - and damn the tabloids for their inevitable attacks upon it.





    worth bearing in mind that because of tax-breaks, most of the owners of the tabloids will ensure they don't have to pay a penny of the costs of incarcerating 100,000+ of the UK's citizens, nor do they have to deal with the social costs of such a draconian - *american* - policy.

    another surprisingly good move by the Tories - far better (in proposal) than anything that could be imagined coming from the nuLabour party.

    nice one, ken.

    -------------

    on the privatisation of the Royal Mail:



    --i note with much cynicism, that the article makes no mention of the PERCENTAGE that will be sold to the workforce, and indeed, it is so very clear in the article that the bulk of the shares will be sold to foreign multi-nationals, who have less than sterling reputations. So why this big whooha over "John-Lewisification'?

    i do believe it is called 'spin'. Bet we all feel better knowing someone is being paid 拢100,000s in order to mislead the Public just as under nuLabour and Thatcher. Continuity, "Strong and Stable Govt" - its all for OUR benefit, you see. Or not?

    i do find it amazing, that the UK Govt so often claims that "infusions of private capital" improves a service, when in any actual study, it has been shown that investment rates in privatised companies have generally *fallen*, whilst monies taken out as 'profit' (usually by higher prices and lower standards) increase dramatically.

    not that amazed though, because i've quite simply gotten used to being lied to by our Govt for most of my life.

    ----



    --it seems we got 2 Speakers with Bercow - .5 the actual Speaker, plus 1.5 his wife.

    (i actually write that before reflecting upon the story itself... parallels were unintended!! ;D )


    perhaps the Speaker, in line with these more violent, American times, should be armed with a Tazer? It's terrible to say, but i would expect viewing figures to go up!! LOL ;)

  • Comment number 33.

    #31...

    :sighs:

    OK, follow this general link to the newsletter 'rough music':



    -and its the first article posted in the 7th issue.

  • Comment number 34.

    #15: brossen, do you also have any footage of Chernobyl perchance?? :/


    #10: dallen, complete fallacy. Public sector wages are paid by taxes - taxes are taken from BOTH the Public and Private sectors.

    in fact, it is quite likely that 拢 for 拢, the public sector pay MORE in taxes than the private Corporations. Put not your faith on oft-repeated economic clich茅s in the controlled Meeja. They are more often than not an example of the "repeat your lies often enough to create 'truths'" school of misinformation.

    not only do the Public Sector pay taxes (and often with much less tax-avoidance), but they also supply the basic services that the Private Sector rely upon. Having your children taught by teachers may not be an immediate return on the investment by the society, but from the viewpoint of a future employer, that investment is *ABSOLUTELY* necessary.

    this ideological bias towards 'the private sector' is nothing less than simple theological insanity. It holds no intellectual merit, it has no scientific (economic) grounding, it has been shown REPEATEDLY to do the exact opposite that its apostles claim for it. The ONLY benefit from this 'private sector' theology is that these apostles tend to make a lot of money when they leave office, whilst everyone else gets a lot poorer whilst they are IN office.

    some, like myself, might question the validity of these questionable 'benefits'.

  • Comment number 35.

    "The Beginning of an Answer to 'Is the Internet a Force for Good'."

    Instead of blaming the internet and associated technologies for shrinking attention spans and a lack of curiosity about anything outside of a narrow field of interest, look to the collapse of the education system if you seek to lay the blame somewhere.

    As is always the case in debates on subjects such as this; the guests, by their intellectual sparing, rather quickly disproved the argument in favour of technology having a damaging influence on the mind, although no-one realised it. The arguments proffered were largely academic. Mere knowledge of the problem proves a person has the ability to overcome any lure there may be to switch off from the outside world. You should worry about those who aren't aware of a problem, but always ensure you consider that a person's morphing in to a monosyllabic social recluse is a product of an insufficient education and not any magical effect of technology.

    Technology makes it much easier for people to switch off from everything, but it is also gives a ready excuse for those who want easy answers as to 'why'.

  • Comment number 36.

    Why does everyone accept this piffle about "increasing lifespans" being the cause of the pension crisis? On your own figures, the 成人论坛's pension deficit went from 拢470 million to 拢2 billion in two years. Just how fast would life expectancy need to increase, if it was causing that?

  • Comment number 37.

    I would also quite like to hear how these projected increases in life expectency can be reconciled with the rapidly increasing levels of obesity, diabetes and liver disease which our health service is having to deal with.

  • Comment number 38.

    AWARE DOES NOT OFTEN EQUAL ABLE

    #35 StSC

    Sadly StSC I find evidence of very few in many arenas (over indulgence in food/drink, poor driving and sexual proclivity) that actually are AWARE of the issues and outcomes of their actions and the potential damage to selves, others and the greater community/world. Of those who claim to know (be aware) that they eat too much, exercise too little, drive too fast, play too many computer games etc , there is again a minute percentage who are open enough, able and willing enough to translate that limited awareness into valid action.

    This would suggest by your analysis that the numbers suffering 鈥... product of an insufficient education鈥 are huge and it raises the age old question of exactly WHAT education should consist of, to who it is delivered, when adn how as a starter for ten.

    The easiest route by far and our society makes it all too easy, is to point a finger and suggest it wasn鈥檛 their fault, it was 鈥榯wo big boys 鈥 and they ran away鈥

  • Comment number 39.

    #37 Exactly my thoughts dinasour. With all the indulgences people love, they will not live into extreme old age as my parents are. They both lived pretty deprived lives, especially in childhood, had to suvive the austerity and misery of a world war, and yet have reached 87 and 92. I don't think this pension time bomb is going to happen with all the drunks and coke heads there are at the moment, how do think they will live to old age?!

  • Comment number 40.

    #32 "Budget will cost 1.3m jobs - Treasury"

    Don't you think that was inevitable MH?

    The Labour government "created" a million jobs, 97% of which went to immigrant workers. It's about time Britain learnt to cut it's budget according to it's cloth. With 8 million british not working when in theory they could be, I think we are in dire straights. We've imported 6 million people in the last 13 years, mostly unskilled, and a lot not working, perhaps they are included in the eight million the rest of us keep. The 3 million that left the UK, were either retiring, which I heard on the news were returning as their finances run out, and the bright, intelligent and successful ones, unfortunately!


  • Comment number 41.

    IT'S LIFE, LIZZY, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT........

    #39

    Not sure EcoLizzy (nice to see you again btw) if Dinosaur wasn't referring to the fact that we may LIVE longer, but at the cost of constant long term costly medical intervention. The cost of drugs to regulate


    Like it or not, to avoid the NGHS swallowing in a couple of months, the entire annual GDP of this island nation (sorry jaunty) of ours, drastic action/decisions will need to be made. Not sure who we mandate to make it. NICE, ConLibs, GOD?

  • Comment number 42.

    Mindys-Housemate #34

    Its patently obvious that you have no engineering aptitude whatsoever which makes you easy prey for " eco-fascist Aristotle " science on wind farms. All the evidence suggests that wind farms do not reduce CO2 emissions unless you are willing to become a third world country with regular power cuts. Germany ( which also backs up Denmark ) has has to open at least five new major fossil fuel plants to cope with backup demand just to keep the lights on. As for the Chernobyl accident, it would never have happened but for idiots experimenting with the reactor control system, the lessons have been learnt and the latest reactors are totally fail safe. Wind farm fires are due to poor ( cheap nasty ) computer aided design, programmed to build crap with a max life of five years, the boffins who write the software are not true practical engineers.

  • Comment number 43.

  • Comment number 44.

    #35: S2SC, education yes, but also our very method of raising children. It has been shown that children raised in open, 'liberal' households and are given more emotional support, are more willing to explore their surrounding territory - later in life, this also includes Intellectual territory. Children raised in more authoritarian homes, tend to grow up more afraid of the 'outside' world, and more likely to stay within their 'confines'.

    this is something education should very definitely be addressing - except that our teachers are bogged down simply handling enormous class sizes, budget cuts, and directly harmful constant testing.

    the parallels to what the debaters talked about, the difference between those who use the internet to find alternative viewpoints to their own (everyone who has read Robert Anton Wilson's 'Prometheus Rising' will do this anyway), and those who just seek out similar opinions, should be quite obvious.

    #36: dinosaur, you would prefer our political/economic rulers to admit they are cutting back pensions because of THEIR OWN incompetence and unrestricted greed? Asking a bit much, aren't you?

    #37: i also expect life expectancy in the UK to start dropping soon, for those reasons amongst others.

    #41: brighty, where could the problem be in the NHS once again developing drugs in-house, thus cutting out the vast amounts they have to pay for multinational profits? We can also combine with other Health Services in this search, pooling resources instead of private corporations fighting tooth-and-nail to secure patents they can then use to screw everyone else over.

    most of the actual scientists working on new pharmaceuticals are not doing it to become filthy rich (which the vast majority don't anyway, foot-soldiers for the profiteers), they are doing it because they love the work, and want to both improve Science, and also improve the lives of others.

    there is no need for a profit motive on this. South Africa, in its fight with the multi-national pharmaceutical companies to produce affordable HIV/AIDS treatments shows the way.

    #42: wind-power was never originally intended to "reduce carbon emissions", it was (at least in DK) a way for the Society to produce power instead of importing expensive oil, making use of a natural resource that also does not pollute. And DK uses Norway's surplus hydrothermal energy, selling back wind-power when DK has a surplus.

    the latest design of nuclear power may certainly be *safer* - but NOTHING is entirely "fail-safe". We had to keep a fighter above Sellafield during the worst part of the 'War on Islam", costing some 拢15m a day or something similar. How many wind-farms had to be so protected?

    and then there is simple utter incompetence - Halliburton had tried to build a nuclear upon DIRECTLY above a fault line only a few years ago, and it was only the sterling work of a whistle-blower, who had his life entirely destroyed through his bravery, that managed to get the project scrapped.

    i can't find a link, but here is one of Japan's actually-built nuclear plants in difficulties:



    wind has its issues - obviously - but where could the problem be of investing in it? Especially off-shore farms, have a great potential to improve energy security.

    btw, on the oil-spill, it seems Dirty Halliburton are indeed directly involved...




    wind-farm design may need improving (in fact that first Danish windmill i mentioned is still going strong, 35 years later!), but we don't have time to wait for 'perfect' technology. We have to prepare for post-oil economics, and we also need to cut carbon to stop the destruction of the oceans. AGW may or may not be happening, but the effects of massive pollution upon an already stretched Biosphere are no longer absorbable. Unless we want the entire Earth to experience what happened on Easter Island, we have to start using that much-vaunted intelligence to properly plan ahead for the benefit of future generations.

  • Comment number 45.

    #43: an interesting article. The thing that makes me most suspicious about it is its rather warm mentioning about "cap and trade" - bearing in mind you yourself have been the most prolific poster about this scheme, negatively, i wonder how you square that?

    "The Economist magazine notes in a recent editorial, 鈥淲asting Money on Climate Change,鈥 that each tonne of emissions avoided due to subsidies to renewable energy such as wind power would cost somewhere between $69 and $137, whereas under a cap-and-trade scheme the price would be less than $15."

    as for "Germany鈥檚 CO2 emissions haven鈥檛 been reduced by even a single gram,", that seems quite likely because energy *demands* have kept increasing?

    imagine a war tomorrow on Iran, ending its oil production, causing an enormous hike in oil prices, and a disasterous cut in distribution.

    i suspect *you* would at that point prefer to live in a country that secures 25% of its current needs through sustainable sources (yes, DK produces around 25% of its energy through windfarms, not 19%), rather then a country where the lights just go out permanently.

    there is a commentator after that article, who points out that China has now taken the lead in building wind-turbines - and expects to employ 100s of thousands in this technological industry. But hey, we have a 'free market'. And that has NEVER failed us, right?

  • Comment number 46.

    #41 Thanks BYT, I often read, but lately felt there wasn't much to comment on. mim and gango seem to have taken over.

    Yes that could be dinosaurs point I agree, but surely you can't be kept alive indefinitely with these health problems. And probably won't be if government has their way. Perhaps we should be thinking about voluntary euthansia, I for one don't want to live on in agony, unable to look after myself, or in a "care" home!

    But that's a very slippery slope!!! : (

  • Comment number 47.

    #43 I've been reading all your links brossenn99, very interesting especially all the film of burning windmills.

    I've also got some windfarms near me, it's amazing how often they're not turning! As you say, we will always need backup, so now we have to pay for the old "dirty" power, AND the new shiny windmills, which are "good" power. Doesn't make sense to me either.

  • Comment number 48.

    34 MINDy the Bollo.............X marks the Spot

    Wages Generated by the Private Sector Pays Public Wages (U posted so Urself) Therefore it stands 2 reason the private sect pays wage and out of that wage the public pays tax butt it was the private that laid the golden egg first/started It

    chicken/egg
    stable door/horse bolted
    horse bolted the stable door
    there was an earthquake
    tux wasn't back from the grocers

    TAX DAMNED TAX has gone up more and more 2 pay the OVERBLOATED public sector

    I Think its called Top Heavy and A WASTE this is why I dropped out.

    I Don't Like Waist and aye wont pay for it CommprenDA

  • Comment number 49.

    Prison is a waste close them down send them down 2 Shackletons Rock where they can be free 2 do as they please without harming anybody who plays the the game fair and square. easy init

    if u cant do the time dont do the crime and or if you are STUPID enough 2 get caught you deserve everything you get (have I been Collard)

  • Comment number 50.

    Brightyangthing

    Yhe main thing, BYT, is not to get stuck in a rut. I'm not sure whether you're aware of what I've been through in the last few daya but I'm certainly not giving in to mouc/sey housey.

    mim

  • Comment number 51.

    #48: lol, good comment. :)

    but to find "what started it" we would have to go back many centuries - probably millennia.

    if there is "bloating" in the system (and of course there is!) it is largely TO the private sector, the various PFI schemes and whatnot that mean private multi-nats have gravy pouring down their throats.

    but the cuts will fall upon largely essential sectors of Public Spending - libraries, fire stations, police, teachers, social workers, doctors and nurses.

    in fact, it is entirely possible to have an economy run almost entirely by the Public Sector, the main obstacle to such economic progress is the inevitable desire of elected politicians to meddle in how the economy runs -central control, either private multi-nat or the State, rarely provides the local democratic control that brings efficiency and productivity.

    i was only commenting upon the often repeated adage that it is ONLY the private sector that fuels growth and tax-income - this is utter and complete nonsense, decent education and health, although provided for by the State, are hardly detracting from economic growth - quite the opposite!!

    i like your poem. :)

    on prisons - the best method of crime reduction, seen in EVERY society in EVERY epoch, is to provide productive things for citizens to do. As the old saying goes - 'Idle hands' etc etc. Prisons are of course essential for the few who are a threat to others, but if those numbers have truly doubled in the last few years, then there is far more going wrong in the UK than a few extra prisons can help with.


    #50: Welcome back mim!! I had been wondering where you were, was missing my daily dose of insinuations and insults. 鈾

    hope you're good, enjoying the sun? xx

  • Comment number 52.

    51 house MATeing Mindy

    I agree with a fair bit of your comments, howEVER there is A lot of tWEAKing in the system easily done if gonads properly employed.

    JOBSworth councIllers vote in their pay rise/pension, they aint worth it
    how much coinage does some of these con merchants need 2 put nosebag on the TABle. The legal system what A HUGE rip off.

    I have more respect for Honest Plumbers Electrick Sparkys CARPenters etc

    More than half way thru my cunning plan 2 beat the system plenty of people have gone before me, I'm A bit slow should have done this years
    ago instead of working myself 2 death and standing still/treading water
    ah well u live and learn

    I should write A big shhpeil with detailed plans, 2 lazy I cant B arsed

    the bum/bottom line is a lot of people are paying a lot of tax a third at least is a waste

  • Comment number 53.

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