Travel today. So by request, here is a Weekend Open Thread on Thatcher, who did much to kick off the CO2 global warming saga but later on became a sceptic and regretted her actions. My favorite quote (supposedly attributed to her) from Thatcher is about consensus:
“consensus is an absence of leadership”
So true.
Along the same lines, it is such a shame that the left treats her service so poorly by making an artificial push in song popularity, a false consensus if you will, to make “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead” #1 in Britain so that the BBC will have to play it on BBC Radio1. Such cheap shots speak to the integrity of their political convictions. Fortunately, the BBC decided that they had a shred of integrity left and chose not to play the clip in full. Still, it is a cheap shot.
Plus, discuss anything else within the limits of blog policy.
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She came to power in the long cold winter of discontent of1979. There were no jobs going in Perthshire in Scotland where I lived at the time. That is until one of her tax saving schemes for the wealthy kicked off and they started planting trees. I got a job planting trees in a plantation owned by Lloyds Bank – part of their pension scheme. The way it worked, as I remember, was that Lloyds would put in say 1 million pounds against tax. The tax payer would then put in 3 million pounds. At the end of the day, the whole lot would belong to Lloyds. In the last 5 years they have started cutting the trees down to build wind turbines…
Thatcher was not very popular in Scotland, nor indeed anywhere north of her home county of Lincolnshire. The burden of her reign was not shared equally by all of her subjects…
We can only guess at what state the UK would be in today if she had been beaten in the elections by the Labour party. Everything that Gordon Brown managed to cock-up in the time that he was in power would have started thirty years earlier.
They are now claiming that quantum physics also proves that we’re warming the globe
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/4/13/potsdam-and-the-scientific-method.html
OT Security Heads Up
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“Ongoing attack from >90,000 computers is creating a strain on Web hosts, too.”
ARealChange.com advises
REPLY: This mainly affects self-hosted sites Anthony
I tried to post a comment on what the UK would have been like if Labour had won the election in’77, but apparently your new comments set-up would not allow me to say c**k-up. It obviously doesn’t know that it’s an old naval term.
I just watched Alison Redford thread the needle on the Keystone pipeline at the Brookings Institution. It’s sad to see someone who surely knows better have to defend the carbon footprint of such a beneficial enterprise. Hopefully the days of co2 being considered in every economic decision will soon be coming to an end.
I should have added more… If I remember correctly Lloyds Bank sold the entire forest off to the Rolls Royce Pension Fund some years after I finished planting there in around 1984. After that I have no idea who ended up owning it. I heard that some UK sporting and media celebrities were also part owners.
It says a lot for her integrity that she was taken in by the global warming scam, looked at it (thats where having a leader who is not a trained liar, sorry lawyer is beneficial) and saw through it and had the honesty to say so! had Labour won the election? well us brits are really stupid, stupid enough to spent 6 years fighting for our lives against socialism only to vote out the man who held us together for those dark years and elect a socialist government, but as we were visibly bankrupt, have Mr Calaghan get baled out by the IMF it would need american size stupidity to give them another try, it shows what 25 years of socialist union teachers can achieve!
I have said things about Margaret Thatcher on other posts in other topics on WUWT so I am not going to bore you all by repeating them.
The only thing I will repeat though is that the reason she is so reviled by the political left is because she pointed the way to a better system than they had in place from 1964 to 1979 (apart from a brief tenure in number 10 by Ted Heath, who wasn’t much better than Wilson.The country got richer and the poor got richer and happier umder her leadership.
The Left have the innate ability to control people, they are not interested in, as they pretend to be about the sick and the welfare of the poorest in our society. It is about control, Thatcher took control away from the Left both here in the UK and with the the help of Ronald Reagan, in Eastern Europe and the USSR and they hate her for it to this day .Margaret Thatcher was the best peacetime Prime Minister this country ever had! If Gordon Brown or Tony Benn died tomorrow I would not “celebrate”, in fact I would feel sorrow for their families.
The Left have revealed themselves in their true colours spiteful, ignorant and thoroughly nasty pieces of work who are not fit to be in politics and certainly not fit to govern a country or lecture us on CAGW.
Will they all please go to live in North Korea? Oh sorry I forgot, that is not in keeping with their desire to be in the governing elite.
I wouldn’t call an act of censorship that the BBC is not tasked with (or should be) the showing of a shred of integrity. The BBC is there to report, even if the news is ugly and says that a lack of common decency got a song into the charts (not a big deal these days with the sales figures/number of radio chart callers being what they are compared to two decades ago). Play the thing and add context, that’s the only job the BBC is chartered with.
Otter says:
April 13, 2013 at 7:22 am
They are now claiming that quantum physics also proves that we’re warming the globe
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/4/13/potsdam-and-the-scientific-method.html
============
All things being kept equal is the key underlying assumption that is never spelled out. However, if vertical circulation is increased by global warming, then there is a very strong negative feedback in the climate system.
Real greenhouse warm not as a result of IR or back radiation, but as a result of reduced vertical circulation. Open a small window at the top of the greenhouse and it will cool rapidly, with only a miniscule difference in blocking by the glass.
The models predict the GHG theory on the basis of the atmosphere warming first, reducing vertical circulation, resulting in surface warming. The so called “hot spot”. However, in many years of observation the hot spot has never been found, showing the vertical circulation is not reduced.
Rather, what we see is that the surface has warmed first, not the atmosphere. The atmosphere has only warmed in response to surface warming. Which strong suggests that the warming cannot be due to reduced vertical circulation, and that the climate system has a strong negative feedback in the form of increased vertical circulation in response to increased surface temperatures.
In other words, GHG cannot be the cause of the increased surface temperatures, because the order in which the warming occurred (surface first followed by atmosphere) is opposite to the signature of GHG warming.
I left the UK in 1973 after the most miserable few years imaginable, courtesy of the NUM and TWU: No trains, no heat and no jobs. The only thing we had plenty of was inflation. It stayed that way until the early 80s when suddenly people started investing in their businesses, pubs and homes. It was really noticeable when I went home to see my parents. My peers suddenly decided that they could start their own businesses and that it was OK to work hard and get rich. It is true we lived around London – as does 40% of the British population. But my Dad grew up in Liverpool. The culture up there – Beatles or not – was dreadful. It was Andy Capp land. As long as the dole enabled you to buy a pint and your fags, you managed. It was Greece without the sunshine. Bloody awful. It was amazing to see how fast things turned around, but I have no doubt that many of those in the mining communities suffered.
I am not sure how much of the turnaround was due to Thatcher but she did not get in the way. Alas the high-mindedness of the poll tax was a political poison pill after the MSM decided that they really preferred the antiquated local rates program.
As for the Thatcher haters – the operative word is “hate”. She called the Left on their corruption (see Scargill), their hypocrisy, their socialistic utopianism, their dependency, their ignorance and their naivete. They never, ever forgave her.
In other energy news today, more evidence is emerging that the legal case brought against Chevron by Ecuador, seeking billions of dollars of reparations and supported by a host of American environmental activists, is collapsing as overwhelming evidence of fraud arises at every level of this case. The original judge who allowed the case to go forward against Chevron has admitted that he was bribed heavily to do so; and now one of the providers of “expert testimony” used in the case has been forced under threat of suit to denounce their own previous testimony.
“Stratus Consulting has provided sworn declarations outlining the firm’s knowledge of the plaintiffs’ lawyers’ misconduct in the ongoing environmental litigation in Lago Agrio, Ecuador as well as testifying that there is no scientific merit to the plaintiffs’ damages claims against Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) and Texaco Petroleum (TexPet).”
http://www.theamazonpost.com/news/ecuadorean-environmental-claims-disavowed-under-oath-by-plaintiffs-own-experts
to quote; “The truly interesting part about this isn’t the apparent collapse of the case in Ecuador, but what seems to be an acknowledgment of the active involvement of American based activists.”
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/04/13/ecuadors-case-against-chevron-even-more-of-a-farce/
Well said Andrew. Vile and nasty is an accurate description from my perspective as I sit in the middle of California. The left here in the US view themselves as educated, enlightened and superior in every aspect to the unwashed masses of ordinary people. If you dare to question any of the dogmatic pillars of their world view, you are attacked en mass by the faithful believers.
Long may we remember the outstanding individuals who governed with a light hand and left ordinary people free to pursue their own happiness, in their own way.
Rest well Margaret Thatcher.
Lady Thatcher was a tragic figure in the literary sense. Nobody did more than she to break the monopoly of power that the ruling elite in general, and the Conservative party in particular, held over the British population. Yet, for her troubles, she was destined to be reviled as caring only for the rich and powerful.
As an outsider to politics, she entered a government that was the embodiment of privilege, old Etonians and Bullington boys. She was called “Hilda” by those who thought her middle name sounded more lower class than Margaret – an indication of what she was up against.
She brought with her the moral codes of her methodist and grocery shop upbringing which gave her the belief that hard work, personal responsibility and honesty was the route to prosperity – both physical and spiritual. AS an admirer of Hayek and the Austrian economists, she believed that Government should empower the people to fulfil their own destinies through the functioning of the free market – and Government should retreat to the background.
I cannot over emphasise how radical she really was. Whether or not you blame her for every economic ill that has befallen the world (I do not), there is no doubt in my mind, that she acted out only of her desire to empower the British working people, and create an asset owning democracy. And she had to overcome enormous odds to see it through.
Thwarted initially by the old Tories – the wets – she found a few allies among the working class Tories, such as Norman (now Lord) Tebbit. She de-regulated th financial centres (in the Big Bang), privatised a number of state owned industries by selling discounted shares to the British people (held to be controversial today) and sold council houses to their tennants. But as well as this, she was the first PM to actively try and reverse what all previous post war leaders had done before – preside over the managed decline of the UK. She would not allow the country she loved to slide ever more down the hole of irrelevance and poverty. She succeeded in reversing 30 years of post war relative decline.
If we slide once again (we are) it will be because we have squandered the inheritance she has bequeathed.
Otter says:
April 13, 2013 at 7:22 am
“They are now claiming that quantum physics also proves that we’re warming the globe
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/4/13/potsdam-and-the-scientific-method.html
”
Schellnhuber is by education a quantum physicist; he’s constantly pointing this out on his never ending public TV talkshow crusade. And we quantum physicists are way smarter than you stupid proles is the message of course.
Only that some of the stupid proles actually know about negative feedbacks, chaos mathematics etc.
“Everything the State says is a lie, and everything it has it has stolen” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Just curious why we haven’t had a sea ice thread. Normally by this time we are voting on the next minimum.
Personally, this year is looking like the minimum will be higher due to more circumpolar winds. Clearly, that could change at any time, but so far, so good.
Anthony says: “[Lady Thatcher] regretted her actions.”
Can you kindly provide a reference for this.
After Lady Thatcher left office, she toured the United States extensively, giving talks sponsored by conservative think tanks. The normal thing. She dismissed alarmism and did not like Al Gore very much, but I’ve never known her to regret her actions regarding Climate Change.
Thatcher was extremely clairvoyant in seeing what the EU was about to become. Ironically, the left whose slogan in the 70ies was “Question Authority” are now screaming for more police state measures against offshore bank account holders, i.e. against people who try to move their money out of a regime that does not care too much about the rule of law (the EU).
Schäuble (one of the four horsemen of the Eurocalypse, German minister of finances) just demanded an EU tax evasion “FBI”; Der Spiegel had an article about it and – as the leftist readers of Der Spiegel cannot possibly simply agree with control freak Schäuble (he’s on the upper right quadrant of the political compass, an authoritarian nonsocialist) they KINDA agreed with him, commenting “Well these are only words, his coalition partner (FDP, classic liberals) will never allow that”.
So, leftist authoritarians agree with right wing authoritarians. Quel surpris. The word “statist” doesn’t exist in this meaning in German, probably because German writers cannot imagine a non-statist attitude.
I think you folks will like this one – Smart Storms Hockey Stick!
http://www.brianlloydfrench.com/1/post/2013/04/smart-storms-threaten-very-survival-says-un-and-scientists.html
“Smart Storms Hockey Stick”
http://www.brianlloydfrench.com/1/post/2013/04/smart-storms-threaten-very-survival-says-un-and-scientists.html
Three things about Margaret Thatcher’s period as Prime Minister stand out for me;
1). Her actions in breaking the traditional power of the trade unions which undoubtedly caused a generation of hardship for some families as business gained more freedom to restructure. It is likely that some of her economic principles were nonetheless a necessary long term evil.
2). However, her subsequent attempts at (over) stimulating the economy with the inevitable boom and bust cycles that that produced certainly define one aspect of her stewardship.
3). But perhaps the thing that ultimately she may come to be remembered most for will be for her leadership during the Falklands crisis. And in that regard she was truly a remarkable woman.
Disclaimer. Despite the final line of praise, I never voted for her, though I did vote for her predecessor Edward Heath, thus to date I have voted for all three major parties, but over the last twenty years have given up voting as all 3 major parties are so much alike and of late have become just branches of the Green Party.
There are two other parties left to vote for, UKIP who have some sensible ideas in some areas but are impractically extreme and thus virtually unelectable in other areas, and the remaining party is the protest vote, The Monster Raving Loony Party !
As our political system in the UK has stagnated I think perhaps I should set up my own political party, The Beneficial Dictator Party. I of course would be the Beneficial Dictator.
Anybody following the Arctic Sea ice care to explain how the Hudson Bay suddenly lost half of its ice in one day? Cryosphere Today tacks sea ice in each sea and they show Hudson Bay just lost half of its ice. http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/recent365.anom.region.13.html
Was it an algorithm malfunction, satellite malfunction, or snow melt appearing as open water?
BTW Bering Sea ice continues above average. Ice in the Barents Sea is recovering rapidly. Most of the open water is caused by warm waters pumped into the Arctic by the North Atlantic Oscillation and then further affects atmopsheric circulation. If natural oscillations have caused most of the Arctic ice melt, then the recovering Barents sea ice suggests Arctic Ice will soon follow.
J Martin says:
April 13, 2013 at 8:31 am
“There are two other parties left to vote for, UKIP who have some sensible ideas in some areas but are impractically extreme and thus virtually unelectable in other areas, and the remaining party is the protest vote, The Monster Raving Loony Party !”
What makes UKIP unelectable specifically? Asking not to mock you; but all I know of UKIP is a lot of the talks of Nigel Farrage and he seems sensible to me.
The things I remember about the Falklands are these: 1) It could have been stopped by diplomacy – (as it had the last time the Argentinians started making noises in 1977), and: 2) The Tories were way behind in the polls so would probably have lost the 1983 election had the Falklands not happened.