London Mayor, Boris Johnson, writes in The Telegraph:
From: The weather prophets should be chucked in the deep end
For more than 20 years now, we have been told that this country was going to get hotter and hotter and hotter, and that global warming was going to change our climate in a fundamental way. Do you remember that? We were told that Britain was going to have short, wet winters and long, roasting summers. It was going to be like 1976 all over again, with streakers at Lord’s and your Mr Whippy melting before you could even lick it, and Hyde Park scorched into a mini Kalahari.
They said we were never going to have snow again, and that we should prepare for southern England to turn gradually into a Mediterranean world. There were going to be olive groves in the Weald of Kent, and the whole place was going to be so generally broiling in summer that no one would be able to move between noon and 4pm, after which people would come out to play boules and sip pastis, to the whine of a mandolin, in the dusty square that had once been a village green.
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The prophecy sounds so attractive. What was the downside to this transformation?
Oh, if only.
This isn’t the first time he’s expressed this, he quoted Piers Corbyn during the winter as the basis for thinking things are going cold in the near future (before the MET Office prediction was revised).
they might orchestrate a scandal to oust him for this
Nice one, Boris.
Perhaps they take out one of those “green” loans, and get the pool insulated, tee hee.
Better still, there must be an entrepreneur who can make a device that allows the pool to be rapidly heated to sauna temperatures with fossil fuels, by hooking it up to the Chelsea-tractor in the driveway.
could he have a word with his boss, Cameron, and get him to lay off the Koolaid?? otherwise we’ll be carpeted in windmills, in 2014 the red eco-loons will get back in and that’ll be that for Brittania.
Well, don’t worry, world, Barack is on the case and has a plan to stop the warming and avert the crisis!
Lucky world!
/ or not
AleaJactaEst, we’re already carpeted in turbines. Britain has more turbines than the rest of the world put together! A fact that shocked me.
Being a mandolinist of note, I would chafe slightly at the unfavorable light impugned by his Lordship. Only slightly, though.
The Ghost Of Big Jim Cooley at 11:21 am:
“AleaJactaEst, we’re already carpeted in turbines. Britain has more turbines than the rest of the world put together! A fact that shocked me.”
They aren’t “Turbines”, they are Wind Mills.
Boris is the smartest of smart cookies and, make no mistake, he is going to be Prime Minister soon.
He is ever so gradually putting water between his image and the phrase ‘global warming’.
Boris is a highly significant influence on the chattering classes so this is obviously a good thing but by crikey it’s painfully slow to watch.
At this conversion rate it will be another 5 years before BoJo is clearly a ‘skeptic’.
Welllllll….I sure am happy for the searing heat and 3 feet of wet “drought” in my front yard. Glad the oceans stopped rising. Why can’t these “people” be charged with crimes against humanity?
Oh.And anybody wondering about the flooding in Calgary(and Devon,Edmonton,Rocky,Lethbridge,etc). I guess the history books do not go back to 1895. Who woulda thunk weather history started last week?!?!
The bottom line for the Met is that all their chanting and rattle-shaking over global warming / climate change has contributed absolutey nothing to their accuracy at forecasting the weather – which is what true Brits *really* want to know about.
Granted this is a UK politician, he’s a lot more reasonable on this topic, and some others, than the run of UK politicians. A glimmer of hope for the Motherland?
The climate is changing so fast our children’s children won’t know the warmth of a summer day.
/sarc
How Huffpo sees it: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/britain-climate-change-risks-study_n_1233133.html
How the Grauniad sees it: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2010/jan/06/cold-snap-climate-sceptics
How the blogosphere sees it: http://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2013/03/global-warming-bites-britain-in-the-arse-freezing-weather-kills-thousands-of-pensioners/
I see a class action: aggrieved English pool-owners against the global warming prophets and the erroneous meteorologists who have, frankly, been taking the piscine.
Good old Boris.
I hope not – people are already complaining about the lack of warming and return to the dank chill of their youth. As bad as the climate is according to the alarmongers the weather has been pretty good. Maybe when people realize all their wasted billion$ will only bring back year-around moss they’ll rethink the problem.
For dp:
Unfortunately what you think is sarcasm is very possibly true. While the fools prance about hollowing about agw, the very real climate change worry is ICE, and more ice, and still more ice.
Very good comment otherwise.
BTW: How are wineyards doing which had been established all over the south of Britain over the past 15 years?
Last years’s harvest must have yielded a spectacular vinegar – and this year’s is well on it’s way to even surpass that quality, me thinks.
Q: Will disillusioned british wineyard-owners be eligible for financial compensation by the Met Office for their less-than-sparkling long-term weather-forecasts…?
The Ghost Of Big Jim Cooley says:
June 24, 2013 at 11:21 am
AleaJactaEst, we’re already carpeted in turbines. Britain has more turbines than the rest of the world put together! A fact that shocked me.
————————————————————-
Britannia insula est.
Until the next ice age, when the ruins of North Sea windmills will stand quaintly upon the uplands of a resurgent Doggerland.
stacase says:
June 24, 2013 at 11:28 am
“They aren’t “Turbines”, they are Wind Mills.”
It say’s “2 new 2MW turbines” right there on Vestas’ main page. But hey, what do they know.
Here’s Boris from his Oxford days – as a member of the (notorious) Bullingdon Club:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/05/28/article-2331891-0649E9FB0000044D-415_634x497.jpg
See if you can spot David Cameron (Boris is obvious with his blonde hair).
I like that image. These are our true lords and masters and we are so lucky, here in the UK, to have them running the country and looking after our best interests. NOT.
Having said that, I like what Boris is reported as saying here – a lot – and I do think he’s a funny, articulate and likeable fellow. I’m just saying he’s very much part of the establishment as well, so watch out!
Probably off-topic but worth mentioning:
I’ve been noticing in Russian news and on Russian web sites about a huge June snowstorm in China. Google search gives several articles on this subject on English-language Chinese sites, and one short video on AOL (http://on.aol.com/video/summer-snow-falls-in-northwest-china-517829742) but no articles on Western English-language sites.
Careful guys…I admire dear old Boris for his views on warming, I really do, but here’s a word about Boris in days gone by…. [whisper it]…he was once a warm-monger…]
http://toryaardvark.com/2013/06/24/the-new-face-of-climate-change-a-stick-man/
Ha ha.
That article was pure local politics, but cute.