When the London Stock Exchange closed yesterday, it became possible to compare the year-end positions for 2010 and 2011. The FTSE 100 was down 5.6% over the year. Banks fell more sharply. Oil and gas shares rose. The High Street remains in dire straits, partly due to the impact of online shopping, partly due toContinueContinue reading “End of the Beginning”
Tag Archives: Growth
Crooks In Command
The Western Daily Press leads today with a story about an open letter from wildlife groups in Wessex and Cornwall “incredulous” about the Coalition’s “stunning disregard” for the natural environment, citing the Chancellor’s recent description of it as a “ridiculous” barrier to economic growth.Tony Richardson of the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds)ContinueContinue reading “Crooks In Command”
One-Way System
“Localism is about liberating the natural desire of local communities to become more prosperous. The notion that communities choose decline and reject prosperity is perverse, wrong-headed and not based on evidence.”So says Eric Pickles. Two questions then for the obese obfuscator.If he’s that sure that local communities, left to themselves, will destroy their environment, acceptingContinueContinue reading “One-Way System”
Eradicating Ecocide
Go for it!
Peak Credulity
Must be conference season for the London parties, no?
Cycling At The Edge
“Anyone who believes exponential growth can go on forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist.”Kenneth Boulding (1910-1993), founder of evolutionary economics and co-founder of General Systems TheoryOne of the philosopher Bertrand Russell’s best analogies was ‘the inductivist turkey’. A repeated experiment apparently gives the same answer every time. Has anContinueContinue reading “Cycling At The Edge”
Panic Over?
“The question remains whether, as the Berliners say, ‘the situation is desperate, but not hopeless,’ or ‘hopeless but not desperate,’ as the Viennese used to put it.” Walter C. Dowling (US Ambassador to Korea), 1957 Consider three documents. The first is the State of the South West Report 2011, which informs us that human activityContinueContinue reading “Panic Over?”
Ecocidal Maniacs Rule!
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum – even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the systemContinueContinue reading “Ecocidal Maniacs Rule!”
Remaking Politics
“I do not believe in struggling to take power, but to build it.”Hugo BlancoGrowth is what everyone wants. Apparently. So we can pay the banks the interest on the money they created out of nothing.We could join in too and become a pro-growth party. Just like the other ‘choices’ on offer. All hurtling towards theContinueContinue reading “Remaking Politics”
Organising Murder
“War is organised murder, and nothing else.”Harry PatchAnd so the extraordinary life of Harry Patch, the last Tommy of the First World War, has ended at his home in Wells. His years as a centenarian were spent as an eloquent spokesman for the Lost Generation of 1914-18, imparting what he could of experiences beyond theContinueContinue reading “Organising Murder”
Wessex Regionalists 