By Jo Nova
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is transforming British politics
The Tories have already dropped Net Zero policies, but now the effects are spreading to Labour and the Greens. Australian spineless political parties should note that voters reward parties who lead the way in dumping Net Zero and immigration.
Just the fear of what might happen at the Council Elections meant Tony Blair, the former Labour PM, dropped the bombshell that Net Zero was unworkable, and that people were being silenced because they were terrified of being called Climate Deniers. A wave of skepticism was sweeping across Europe and Blair wanted to jump in ahead to steer the rebellion somewhat and promote his own plans.
Reform stormed the English council elections in a seismic way — winning 677 seats, twice as many as the Conservatives, and more than sixfold than Labour.
Now even the Guardian are writing headlines asking if the Labour party will abandon Net Zero? In the end the article is another advert for Net Zero (aren’t they all) but it’s obvious the Guardian editors are worried that Labour might be tossing the idea around.
Two weeks ago this would have been unthinkable.
The win for Farage has rattled the cages so much that even some Greens are saying that Net Zero is hurting the poor (only thirty years too late). The Deputy Leader of the Green Party in England and Wales (which is not the same as The UK Greens) is running for the Party leadership on a whole new thing called “Eco-populism”.
The eco-populist against net-zero
Megan Kenyon, New Statesman
Zack Polanski is looking to lead the Green Party, and to challenge Labour’s climate policy from the left.
One of Reform’s primary battlegrounds with the government is over climate policy, as Farage wields net zero as a culture war sledgehammer. Polanski similarly hopes to put the pressure on Labour over this issue – but from the left. “I’m really angry about net zero,” he told me, “I’m angry that the government are expecting some of the poorest in this country to step up to net zero, expecting people to install heat pumps or expecting people to get a train rather than a plane, even though a plane is a much cheaper option”. Taken at face value, these words could well have been spoken by a Reform candidate or councillor – almost as though it is out of Farage’s own playbook. “While I may even agree with Nigel Farage’s diagnosis of the problems, it’s very clear that he doesn’t really intend to do anything about those things,” Polanski said.
His solution (of course) is to tax “businesses” — (because they never sell to the poor, and wouldn’t pass on those taxes…. right?)
Polanski believes the government should target UK businesses and the wealthy to shoulder the cost of the green transition via a wealth tax.
Voters flock to parties who stand up for them against the namecallers. (And it’s a shame the Nationals didn’t choose Matt Canavan to lead them!)
Nothing puts politics more in turmoil than a healthy dose of common sense and fiscal reality.
When the attacked put their heads in the sand, only their most consequential asset is showing,
as they clearly value their seat more than any sort of public trust.
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When fiscal realities start hitting an economy like a ton of bricks, common sense can finally start to drown out the shouting of paid advocates. And with 2023 being the first year that climate finance exceeded $1 trillion (US) there is a tremendous amount of money spent on shouting.
The UK and Germany are likely feeling more pain than most countries due to some of the highest energy prices in Europe. It’s no surprise that the Reform party in the UK and AFD rapidly gaining support, although there is a move afoot to ban AFD just as it gained so many seats in the last election.
The $ trillion dollar figure has been pumped up by a relentless 3-decade fear campaign but few ask about what been achieved for all the money thrown at CO2 reduction. CO2 emissions continue to increase, they are just emitted in Asia rather than the US and the EU. There really needs to be an accounting for this.
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It appears the Energy Sabotage Secretary in the UK, Ed Miliband, has noted Tony Blair’s recent comments on net zero as well as the surge of popularity for Reform. He is taking steps to milk as much renewables subsidies as possible from UK taxpayers before the tide turns.
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/miliband-plots-surge-wind-farm-120000908.html?guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvLnphLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAJlZGn7MBD0HnbRC8-8xwxG5tZy3FEztVY3Gy70EoNBwnU-nkILyhWaAi01g9Q7QQQAI1jyVa7duAKxeckp_DOb33zCx3lT0eN7PKLss7Lr2ZXiqYNgB4ckSncLWviW5xRBtXdWsiPq9th_9Uu4v5ZiH9Sl3svuRo3NqsILwhr9v
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The last Federal election in Australia clearly demonstrated that politicians promoted policies pitched to their election win chances, when ideally they should have presented policies that voters wanted. Shame, that is grubby. Geoff S.
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Trump’s election is giving a lot of the rest of the world including the billionaire class of Bezos, Musk, Ellison and many others the guts to chuck the Woke, Trans and phony man made climate change nonsense overboard. Citizens and politicians see this and figure out the way the wind is blowing.
What hasn’t changed is the purposeful Soros/WEF policy of importing millions of sub 80 IQ illegal aliens in order for the Left, who are not having children, enough votes to keep in power. Funny thing is the Latino’s of 2 or more generations past in the US are now the biggest ethnic group opposed to this invasion. Well, it is their jobs being stolen.
The last good sign is the school choice legislation in half our states what with Texas and Indiana recently joining this mass state by state movement. Money now goes to parents who are free to spend it on private and/or religious schools as well as homeschooling. This breaks the totally Marxist Government School monopoly. In order of favoring this school choice policy would you be surprised to know who favors this in Texas: Latino’s – 76%; African American’s – 84% and Whites – 66%.
As an aside, there is Germany the home of Karl Marx and the Nazis with their Schulpflicht where homeschooling is forbidden. No wonder they elect such losers.
We escaped hell, by not having Kamala Harris elected. Sorry about Canada and Australia. Maybe some day they will be better. Here’s hoping
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Good news about home and private schooling in the US.
The Left hate home schooling and private schools because they see the purpose of state sponsored “education” as indoctrination into Leftist ideology rather than real education.
At the moment home schooling and private schools are still legal in Australia but how long that will last is unclear.
Private schools are under increasing pressure to teach aspects of Leftist ideology such as “pick your own gender” and other parts of rainbow and climate change ideology.
A friend’s child in a private religious school in Victoriastan, Australia was subject to being taught both gender and climate nonsense by external state educators that were required by the Government to come to the school to indoctrinate children.
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I hope the school told the kids to forget the BS once the propagandists had packed their bags and gone home and/or forewarned them to ignore the nonsense beforehand.
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It’s kinda funny that in the 60s we had “external” ministers of religion who came to give “Religious Instruction” classes in Qld public schools.
Of course, they were phased out in the 70s due to the growing secular dominance of the education department bureaucrats.
You just have to hope that the same fate awaits the gender/climate “contractors”. But it may take a few decades.
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Makes one wonder whether Albo called the election earlier than anticipated because he, or his masters, could see the writing on the wall.
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He called the election at the last moment for, by law, it was due. He won, worse luck, because he stuck to a very tight script, was positive and exuded confidence. The Liberals reminded me of the porridge at boarding school; never knew what was in it, it was stodgy and bland.
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He stuck to a tight script, was positive and exuded confidence.
And told lie after lie!
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Like many or most Leftists he was and is a very proficient liar.
“Whatever it takes” as the Left say.
And the Sheeple lack the critical thinking skills to discern the lies until it’s too late. That’s because the Left started dumbing-down the education system decades ago plus the support of the Left by the Lamestream Media who are overwhelmingly of the Left. Especially the $1 billion+++ per year taxpayer-funded ABC, a 24/7 far Left propaganda machine.
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Each lie amplified by the media in lockstep with the left of politics. The product of our schools of journalism run by Marxists.
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The libs got hammered because they stood for NOTHING.Every time they opened their mouths,Leibor/greens/teals jumped down their throats and the Libs ran away and hid.Spineless jelly fish….
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In addition the Libs party room is infested with “woke “ Liberals trying their best to compete for the left voters. They’re pro net zero & anti nuclear, coal, gas & oil.
And now we have a woke Lib party leader & deputy who will favour net zero.
Best the Nationals start immediately with plans to break away from the Liberals as they sink into oblivion. It won’t take much to win over the real conservative Liberal voter.
It can & will happen as has happened in the UK.
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It’s sad that Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is now in the Liberals. She will be wasted there. She should have stayed where she was.
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She withdrew her nomination for deputy leader; I’d been looking forward to the mini revolution of having two sheilas at the top of the Liberals, alas ’twas not to be.
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Canavan’s time will come. He has fired a warning shot across the bows of the Nationals and, by extension, the Liberals. I would be surprised if the winner of the leadership election today doesn’t get on board the nuclear wagon and also drop Net Zero. If they don’t their time at the top will be very limited. The biggest problem for the Liberals are the wets at head office who don’t seem to have a clue as to how the majority of Australians want conservative and, dare i say it, Trump like policies. Most people only want to be able to rear their kids and have a good standard of living rather than saving the world from a non existent problem.
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Canavan accepts that emissions contribute to increased heatwaves and other contentious statements. Granted that he is better than most, but after listening and seeing Canavan talk I am not really convinced. He is a more assertive than Littleproud, but that is about it.
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I posted this on the Australian blog yesterday.
“Given that more than 60% of the world’s population is subject to governments with no commitment to net zero (USA, Russia, China, India and Indonesia), and given that the Reform party, together with the Tories, representing about 50% of the vote in the UK, are similarly inclined, and thus presenting a major break in the net zero wall built on the aspirations of the countries of Western Europe, one could draw the conclusion that net zero is at least “dead”, if not “dead and buried”. It’s only a matter of time before the latter occurs. It looks increasingly like Australia’s insane commitment to net zero will shortly leave us like the proverbial “shag on a rock”. This being the case, then it presents an opportunity to the forlorn LNP to actually resurrect itself and start arguing that policies, such as cost of living, should be prioritised way ahead of net zero. This appears unlikely to happen unless it can undertake major surgery to rid itself of the cancer that is its moderate faction.”
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My calculation is 94%. The 6% are Europe (350million), Canada (40), Australia&NZ(30), Japan(120). 550 million out of 8 billion. About 6%. And half of those disagree with it all. And what does all this cash for useless short term unreliables do? Nothing. CO2 is in huge, rapid equilibrium. It’s theft based on lies. All organized by the UN since 1988. And if you bring in a Carbon Tax, you can have a career at the UN, like Helen Clarke of NZ. Julia Gillard tried, but Helen wouldn’t leave. And retired after 8 tough years of NY lifestyle at the planet’s expense. It’s a job.
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I suspect that the “wets at head office” are mostly on the subsidies gravy train, and will defend the subsidies rort to the bitter end.
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“I’m angry that the government are expecting some of the poorest in this country to step up to net zero, expecting people to install heat pumps or expecting people to get a train rather than a plane, even though a plane is a much cheaper option”.
PM John Howard introduced the illegal Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act 2001. It buries ripoffs in the price of all energy. This is enforced by the government like a tax with stiff penalties. And the money goes where the Department of Green Energy decides. You pay for coal power and as much cash again goes to windmill owners.
What this does is push up the power of electricity for everyone. But the rich can afford it. For the poorest, they get no Green tax deduction and it is a very large part of the family budget. So they suffer. And have done so for 24 years.
And if you read the Act, there are two striking omissions. The words ‘Carbon’ and ‘Tax’. It was tricky to write this Act as the world’s biggest first Carbon Tax, but the creators in Canberra did it. And it is also the big tax in the UK. And no one knows it exists. So successful in fact they went for another huge bit with ‘Net zero’ which is science nonsense.
This was copied exactly in the UK. And the commentators do not see it. It is insidious, morally wrong, illegal in fact. Secret payment to third parties, friends of the King, buried in your costs.
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“the government should target UK businesses and the wealthy to shoulder the cost of the green transition via a wealth tax.”
Now they are talking more taxes. These are legal. But cost votes. At least the poor have tax exemptions which work. But it’s the usual soak the rich Labor policy. Again nothing to do with the problem. Even the poor in Australia have solar panels, supposedly paying only half. But the installer collects the Green cash from jacked up electricity payments. So we have the perverse situation where people pay for ‘subsisidized’ electricity when in fact they are pushing up electricity prices in the first place. It’s a vicious cycle which makes the manufacturers of solar panels and windmills so much richer.
And then the public pays for all the previously unnecessary 30,000km of transmission lines, pushing up the price of everything.
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The last Federal election in Australia clearly demonstrated that politicians promoted policies pitched to their election win chances, when ideally they should have presented policies that voters wanted. Shame, that is grubby. Geoff S.
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In the latest ripoff of the Australian people, everyone, the UN has buried $42Billion in the cost of shipping anything. In any direction. What does the consumer get from that? Nothing. It’s to pay for the UN to save the planet.
And the Safeguard Mechanism is another massive hidden CO2 ripoff which was not even mentioned in the election. 5% to 35% over 7 years CO2 payments to buy worthless ‘carbon credits’ in a ‘free market’ which is obliged under law. But don’t worry, only the ‘250 biggest polluters’ will pay. Except they will pass on the 35% carbon dioxide payments, currently at 10% on everything you buy. It’s in every transport cost. Every airline fare. Even flushing the toilet. Yes, the MMBW has to pay, which is you. And the poorest need to go to the toilet too. Plus every manufacturer of chemicals, fertilizer, glass, steel, concrete, copper, zinc, soap, everything. The b*stards will be made to pay for what Rod Sims calls the ‘terrible damage to the environment’ of just flying people on holiday to Bali.
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You are very knowledgeable about this TdeF.
Apary from this blog, how can this be communicated to the voting masses?
Most politicians, even those few sensible ones in the major parties, are unaware of it because they just vote on party lines and don’t bother to read or understand what they’re voting in.
Australia could have the world’s worst and most regressive and illegal carbon tax.
And where do these billions of dollars actually go? Who pockets them?
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It’s a puzzle. C?ina.
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And all this is reasonably available public information. It’s just never mentioned by ANY politicians and certainly not by the ‘media’. Even Rod Sims, front page yesterday in the Australian praised the Safeguard Mechanism as paying the social cost of CO2 pollution. Except the public never see the money. It’s not a tax. How can such famous economists be so dumb? Or deceitful?
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Presumably the money goes into the UN pool — think of this as the UN replacing USAID. The UN gets to keep a big cut for their own salaries, and multiple junkets travelling the world, and they pay off dictators in the third world to buy UN votes, favorable press releases, etc. Then a small amount gets given to a few token mascot victims.
Every “decarbonisation” dollar sent to the UN buys power, influence and a big lobby group. The money they send to dependent industries (renewables, CCS, carbon trading) buys people who will fight to the death for UN power, carbon laws, wind power, solar, EVs. The state “owns” dependent industries. Independent companies don’t need subsidies or regulations to exist. They can’t be bought.
The UN then hold the purse strings and can turn this off or on or selectively reward people as it suits. They can sponsor “projects” in marginal seats to buy MPs, Mayors, Senators, PM’s — whatever.
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Is it a puzzle?
Where the money goes matters little for an analysis of the cash flow.
The size of the money pool dominates.
Australia is years into a drop of productivity per person. Nationally, we are going broke.
When there is less money, if the same amount (the missing millions) continues to be paid, the normal people in society have less to share, so they are poorer.
Politicians are often hell bent on being remembered in history for succeeding with some pet project. See Victoria’s Premier pushing really expensive road and rail links that people cannot afford. The main “remedy” is new taxes, pseudo-taxes, imposts as well as rate increases in existing ones.
Absurd immigration rates are used to create more tax payers. If immigrants do not work productively, the theory fails and the national income problem is worse.
Too much taxation, too few productive workers and critical costs rise. Electricity prices go up, then large industries like alumina refining and aluminium smelting leave the country and unemployment rises. More bad.
What is a solution?
I worked through Australia’s golden decades of 1960s to 1980s. I did exciting, interesting work that put money into the national economy far greater than I took out, as did my colleagues and friends. We got no thanks, we mainly got “bloody dirty miner” abuse, a sign of the depressed times to come.
A solution is to learn from the golden years, to copy the best features and demolish present impediments to a return of wealth, happiness and properly educated children. There are other solutions – President Trump knows this and thankfully is acting to show the world the way. Geoff S
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This science blog is widely read. By people who want to know. And Climate Science is not about Climate or science. More Climate Scientology. But the rivers of cash are very real.
And the poor are the most hurt group. But they are now getting angry as Labor knows. And politicians in the US, Australia, Canada and the UK are starting to see a big storm coming which will sweep them all away. Like Adam Bandt
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Trump is not going to pay the shipping taxes. Once he starts hammering the UN and refusing to pay, I expect that will be in the news.
https://www.politico.eu/article/donald-trump-scrap-maritime-decarbonization-talks/
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Excellent. This is a massive UN scam. And who gets the money? Likely the people running the scam. All to control the world’s CO2, which is uncontrollable of course. It is set by the planet! Which is a lot bigger than a motor car or aircraft, even a 747. Or a billion motor cars. Everything, after all, is made from the planet with energy from the planet and the sun. But with egos the size of a mountain, humans think they control the air itself and the weather. It’s utter nonsense. Even atom bombs are trivial on a planetary scale.
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The UN will apply sanctions on the USA – ha, ha hah!!
Trump is proof that democracy is the best game on Earth.
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And the US will leave the UN, and then demand that the UN leave the US.
Then the whole “international rules based order” will collapse.
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The UN is situated on international territory. The US would have to rid itself of the UN international staff by revoking visas to leave the UN premises. Or maybe turn the power, water and sewers off and let them look after their own.survival needs.
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And when I asked John Howard at his book launch about his Act, he ducked and said he was a ‘Climate Change agnostic’. It was utterly wrong for him to duck what he has done if he doesn’t believe it will be of any benefit. The usual response from politicians is “I’m not a scientist”.
Like the woman Supreme Court candidate in the US who when asked to define a woman replied “I’m not a biologist”.
All liars.
This has never been politics, a social priority or point of view. It is plain legislated theft. And now, finally, crooked politicians are worried about the voting ‘poor’. Who vastly outnumber the rich.
Never has there been such deceit in politics, such robbery of the poor. And as far as anyone can tell, the cash all makes its way to China. Fully supported by the agencies they control, like the UN and WHO. And the Labor parties and the Greens, card carrying communists like Adam Bandt and Tony Albanese. And former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews who flew solo to Beijing for advice. And his ‘big build’ ran riot, using 70% Chinese steel when the legislated limit was 30% and bankrupted Victoria. Now trying to tax its way out of the hole. Land taxes. Fire taxes. You name it. To add to the universal tax on breathing.
Yes, Democratic governments alone have finally taxed the air we breathe, carbon dioxide produced by all living things. 95% of the world does not pay such illegal government taxes.
We are privileged to have such caring, clever politicians who have determined that we and we alone will save the entire world. By shutting down our societies and closing our factories and taxing everyone into oblivion to do so. Even though they are not ‘scientists’.
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“Never has there been such deceit in politics, such robbery of the poor.”
Sorry, but do you know nothing of the mediaeval history of Western Civilisation?
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Democracy is new. Tyranny was the only way. But we are being taken back into Tyranny by wrong laws. Using The Science to rob us illegally so enrich third parties, climatebaggers, merchant bankers and of course China. Taxes are legal. Green Certificates (LGCs,STCs,Australian Carbon Credits) are Carbon indulgences. Mandated by law, but utterly worthless to the purchaser. Robbery.
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An act of parliament can be rescinded. The regulations can be unwound. The instruments can be turned against their creators by simply a majority vote of the right people. Remember this, for all of Clive Palmers pontificating about Dumb and Dumb. He had the numbers in the Senate to vote for Tony Abbott’s attempt to get rid of ARENA (..the money!) Palmer stood on the podium with AL GORE and proclaimed he will vote against the bill. Just like changing one word in REG18C, we will get another opportunity to correct for the future.
A LONG TIME IN THE FUTURE. Sussssssan Ley (Should that have a “H”) has been voted in as leader of the Liberals
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Exactly. Or they can be challenged as being illegal, unconstitutional. This remedy is built into our system with the High Court of Australia. We just need someone to take it there. Thousands of qualified people would testify that it is a scam, but that it not the point. The Government of Australia has no right to force people to pay third parties. They ONLY have the right of Taxation. But in avoiding a Carbon Tax, the government is criminally robbing people. And the people receiving all that money for solar panels and free windmills should have to give it all back. Or make it public property. Nothing is free. It’s your money or given willingly by someone else. The government cannot order you to pay people. For nothing at all.
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A key feature of the RET is that it has an end date, 1 Jan 2031, and not even Labor are prepared to extend it. It will be dead before 2030 because the price of LGCs is tanking.
All Bowen’s new contracts fall broadly on tax payers rather than consumers so it is not regressive like the RET but still highly inflationary. The RET has done most harm to the poor. The who do not own a roof to take advantage of solar.
The RET is becoming history by every passing day. Price of certificates forward dated to 2029 are selling for $8.50/MWh. Even spot price is now down to $17/MWh.
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So ONLY 30 years of theft? So far. It would take one vote in parliament to change the end date.
As for low forward pricing with a 2029 date, that’s speculation five years ahead! People paying in advance to lower the price 5 years out. Theft in advance avoiding inflation. Expect the trading price to go up. It’s all theft and now institutionalized and people playing the game! Unbelievable. A futures market in theft.
We may find ourselves in the position where we cannot cancel the theft without having to reimburse those people robbed. But the cash has vanished years before!
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Here in Australia we’ve voted for clueless left wing loonies who believe that toxic W & S are the cheapest energy although the reverse is true.
Three universities and a think tank tell us it will cost us 9 TRILLION $ and only deliver 15% S and 30% W every year. See even Wiki data.
By comparison Nuclear would cost us 0.115 T $ and provide energy for 93% of every year until 2100 and beyond.
What don’t people understand about toxic W & S and why do they want to destroy 28,000 klms of our environments forever and for a ZERO return?
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And Net Zero means what? The CO2 output we had in 2005. I do not remember 2005 as being any different to 2025. But apparently it was Climate Nirvana and the desperate hope is that we in the few democracies (outside the US and India) can save everyone else. No matter what it costs. I do hope there is enough cash left to pay out Adam Bandt’s parliamentary pension for the rest of his life. And that he can afford the electricity.
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Ironically “Net Zero” could relate to population growth. A war in the Ukraine removes healthy men from the potential breeding pool and a mRNA shot will reduce 60% of viable ova in rats.
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No need. The world population is leveling out. After all with an increase in life expectancy from 25 years to 75 years, 66% of the people would not be alive in 1900. And it will start dropping very fast. Many Chinese women are not getting married and not having children. The population of China is set to plummet. And in Western democracies, the birth rate is already below the maintenance level.
And with it CO2 will drop. But it doesn’t matter as the CO2 level is oblivious to the tiny 0.02% humans add each year to the CO2 pool. (1% in the air of 2% total)
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Negative Population Growth (NPG) is a non-profit organization in the United States that advocates for a gradual reduction in both U.S. and world population.
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That will happen quite quickly. Especially in advanced countries where people have choice. Populations will plummet soon and the modern modelling means we possibly have reached peak population. The Club of Rome was wrong. The excess population is created by poor people living much longer, not more people per year.
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You can have an industrial civilisation or a Palaeolithic Net Zero.
You can’t have both.
Pick one.
The Left want Palaeolithic for non-Elites.
The Thinking Community want progress and industry.
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‘And it’s a shame the Nationals didn’t choose Matt Canavan to lead them!’ Which encapsulates Australian politics. Why have a leader when you can choose mediocrity?
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Even if the Left pretend to want to have some sensible policies, they absolutely should not be trusted. EVER.
They will lie and cheat to get elected and then revert to their regressive ways.
They will do “whatever it takes” as per the title of the book by Graham Richardson describing the ruthlessness of the Left, his own people.
They need to be booted from government, permanently. They represent death, destruction, totalitarianism and regression to a far more primitive and brutal lifestyle for non-Elites.
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Isn’t the “British politics in turmoil…” the object of their application of a Helegian Dialectic exercise. Hyper-wealthy types have often employed popular divisionary ideas to leave them to quietly do their business.
Worm-tongue; “Sire, Sire, Sire. It’s the plebs, they are revolting”.
Sire: Yes, Aren’t they just. Let’s hope they kill each other”.
Mean-while Sire builds a new coal mine/ armaments factory/ steam traction engine or whatever is the future and profitable.
In 2025 they are building Ai centres, CBDC, a Global Digital ID grid and dissolving the power of centuries of evolution of the Westminster Parliamentary System which gave plebs like me a better standard of living and a voice. This time round they’ve dressed-up their World Government Tax in “Green” clothing and named it “Net Zero” which ironically means nothing but millions of AU plebs have fallen for it and will even barrack for it. It’s the antithesis of intelligence.
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This shows, hearteningly, that democracy is not dead. Its point has never been “vote for me and I’ll enact these policies” but “I’d better listen to the electorate or else they’ll kick me out of the power that I enjoy wielding so much”.
In Britain there were plenty of fringe parties that detested the consensus between the Big Two (or Big Two and a Half if you include the LibDems), but some of them were genuinely far-right and all of them were disunited. It took a Cause (Brexit) and a charismatic leader (Nigel Farage) to get to where we are now with the uniparty running scared. In Germany the UniParty is edging toward banning the Alternativ Fur Deutschland from running in elections, at which point each side will call the other the heir of Adolf H. I suspect they won’t dare ban AfD out of fear of riots.
ReformUK is currently a one-man show. Farage needs to get a serious team around him in time for the next General Election, and needs to guard himself very carefully indeed from assassination.
What will it take for a united and sensible party that is well led to arise in Australia?
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Anton: The best politicians are neither “vote for me and I’ll enact these policies” or “I’d better listen to the electorate…”. The great politicians in history are the “I want these policies and I’ll convince the voter to want them too.” Tells you everything you need to know about the Lib and Nat pussycats in Canberra.
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It’s not just carbon. The Greens fought the mining of rare earths. So one by one the mines were closed. They are all now in China. Where they have free workers, Uighurs. And appalling conditions. And the world pays $250/kg for rare earths from China where we used to pay $8/kg. Thank you Greens for saving us.
And the filthy steel industry. Now over 50% in China. Free, free at last. We only have to tax Bluescope and Infrabuild out of existence and we can import 100% of our steel from China. We can always melt old steel but the cost of the energy locally is too high as we are saving the planet. Better to get it all from China.
Plastics too. Buy it from China. In fact the largest Plastics manufacturer just closed. Strangely Chinese owned. Now all the plastic bottles have to come from China. Odd really. 800 jobs. Forced out by the Safeguard Mechanism 35% tax, but they wanted to go. We just import from China.
And then when their is a conflict, like a question about the Wuhan Flu, China can stop buying coal, stop exporting plastics, stop buying wine and only last month, stop selling Rare Earths which they now utterly control.
Is anyone spotting a pattern, supported fully by Labor and the Greens and frankly, by Tories and the Liberal party? China First. MCGA.
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Similar.
I was in a Cathedral gift shop, in England, last week.
All nice – not even too ‘churchy’
It had – near VE Day 80 – lots of kits to build model Spitfires, and Lancaster bombers, and tanks, etc. Even a submarine IIRC.
All made in – didja guess? – China.
And a nice ‘William Morris’ printing set – with four or six blocks to personalise notepaper. Branded after the late-Victorian artist, print-maker and craftsman.
And – yup – made in China …
All this, of course, ‘Designed in the UK’.
The postcards I bought were probably also designed in the UK.
But didn’t say where they were printed. Italy, or Sri Lanka, or Slovenia, or Kenya would be among my first twenty guesses …
Auto
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As for ‘The Science’ behind Net Zero, what science? Where is it hotter in the 37 years since the UN/Al Gore/WMO/James Hansen invented rapid man made CO2 driven Global Warming. Which apparently actually started in 1800. So you need to check your dictionary definition of ‘rapid’. And why was 2005 perfect?
And the idea is that man made CO2 is going to fry us. Which is odd because in 250 years, we have not seem much of a change. Sure there are no ice markets on the Thames and the canals are not good for winter skating in Nederlands, but otherwise things seem to be better. Not as hot as in Roman times, but better.
But when you get a declared heat wave in the UK at 25C, you have to wonder what’s in the tea?
And I’ll believe this Global Warming when Australians stop flying to Indonesia/Bali(population 250 million), Vietnam (population 100 million), Thailand(population 72 million) for much deserved relaxing beach holidays. Surely the populations are suffering? And we are making it much worse by flying there? A 35% CO2 tax on aircraft is much overdue. To stop the suffering.
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And behind all this is “The Science” which says the extra CO2 is man made. Radio carbon dating says categorically that’s not true. But who understands that stuff? We believe as a nation that CO2 builds up in the air, even if every scientists tells us it is highly soluble and in rapid exchange with the ocean. So who decides on the level of CO2? Is it all accidental, random?
In actual fact we could NOT change CO2 levels if we wanted to do so. Up or down. It’s called equilibrium! Humans do not control the level of CO2 from oceans to the air and air to the oceans. Because the planet is much, much bigger than our little power stations and even at our peak, we output 1% of the CO2 a year and that is only 2% of what is in the ocean. It’s absolute fantasy that we control CO2, that CO2 controls our weather and even that there is a man made problem with the weather. Or just lies.
And if you really think we can change CO2, look at the graph of CO2 for the last 55 years. And ask yourself if there is any sign of human interference with this perfect straight line, climbing at a rocketing 0.4% per year. Which is almost a perfect straight line.
Have a look at the graph of ’emissions’
And if you want to see who is doing it. Click on MAP. Cui Bono. The Art of War.
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That graph of CO2 levels ( from that Hawaiian field station) has always been suspicious. A beautiful straight line increase with no major fluctuations. So unlike any other natural observations and almost seems artificially manufactured. Or, the forces behind producing that linear increase are so great, as to be not affected by puny influences like human activity emissions.
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This is the temperate zone graph from New Zealand. Not sub tropical like Hawaii Moana Loa. In the NZ graph you do not see the strong Henry’s Law CO2 oscillations with summer and winter. Nor the phytoplankton’s fast reaction to increased CO2.
The NZ graph is Just a perfect straight line. All CO2 is within 1% from pole to pole. Proof that humans, bush fires, lockdown, volcanoes have no impact on CO2. Because that’s how dissolved gases work. Nothing is random. There is an equilibrium level. But you can’t expect most people to know about equilibrium. They think it’s a mental state, not a predictable balance between opposite transfers.
It’s simple. If the IN exceeds the OUT, the transfer is IN until the OUT increases to match. At present for CO2 it is 50:1 ocean/atmosphere. And the entire of atmospheric CO2 exchanges roughly every ten years. We have had the extraordinary privilege of seeing this in action after the Hydrogen bombs. All 1965 CO2 is now in the ocean and C14 is back at the starting point.
Fossil fuel CO2 makes no difference to the balance, contributing only 0.02% per year to the total.
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So Albo-Tross is going to cancel the debt of 3 million students so that 25 million Australians can cover the shortfall. Clearly Albo is not good at maths! It’s the net zero for lazy student types that failed to obtain satisfaction in education and then failed to get a job to repay their accrued debt that gets my goat.
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But they either got employment with State of Federal “Governments”.
Doesn’t mean they didn’t bother paying their debt either.
Incidentally Labor lost one vote with this – my nephew had just paid off his debt.
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There was always something fishy about Net Zero. It was a scientifically adverse marketing slogan and also seemed to mainly emanate from the UK. Certainly Boris Johnson was all on board with it, which is why Scott Morrison appeared to capitulate and sign up Australia. It reminded me of Coke Zero. A jingoistic term to captivate the populace, clueless politicians and bureaucrats. Someone decided that the debate around climate change was too dry and complicated and needed sexed up. Forget the science, let’s go with emotion. At some stage I read that Net Zero was a concept dreamt up by the WEF along with other 3 letter acronyms like ESG and DEI. Anyway it’s not surprising it losing traction in the UK, just wish our LNP had had enough brains to reject it here. Matt Canavan would certainly like to now, shame he didn’t speak up more when he was in government. Maybe the Labor Party will surprise us all and drop it. They could just blame Morrison and the LNP after all.
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Too little too late from Tony Blair. It was his treasonous policy to open the borders to all comers. Years after his exit he actually admitted it was a policy to import labour voters.
There have certainly been dumber, less competent PMs but he was the worst.
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When people’s suffering reaches a certain level, they are forced to face reality and change. Unfortunately, by the time that happens it’s usually too late. If you look at our own mess down here, we now have a trillion dollars in debt and a government hell bent on making us 100% dependent on China for a form of energy that can’t sustain industry and is so expensive that the government now needs to borrow money and pay people in order to use that electricity. You couldn’t make this schist up.
Unfortunately, it’s probably even worse than we realise because you can’t get rid of the solar panels and wind turbines overnight and we simply don’t have the money or borrowing capacity to build back a new coal powered grid. To make matters even worse, the government is super charging the subsidies for residential solar and batteries to win votes, but this makes the problem far worse. All of the residential solar and battery users effectively become lost customers from the grid and at least ten years worth of grid revenue from those customers gets diverted to China. When you consider we have 3.7M home solar customers, you start to realise the problem. We’re talking about lost revenue in the order of $20-40B every year and that needs to be paid for by remaining grid users, which includes almost all of industry and business users. And, the more expensive the grid gets, the more residential people exit the grid, creating a snowball effect. And of course this is on top of the massive cost of building the extra transmission and storage that also gets passed onto the remaining grid users. This is a system that is designed to cripple business and impoverish low income people, followed by nation wide impoverishment and complete economic collapse. It’s also designed to make us a slave to China and we all know where that leads.
However, the big question is how do we fix this mess and is it even possible to fix ?. By the time of the next election we’ll have almost no coal plants left, almost no heavy industry left, the majority of residential houses effectively removed from contributing financially to the grid (but still needing the grid some of the time), more EVs that need electricity, the debt levels will have reached critical mass, and we’ll be left with the world’s most expensive and unreliable grid that requires a complete replacement at enormous cost.
Has Australia just become a lesson in “What NOT to do” ?
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Ahh – but will you have mandatory heat pumps?
Even in century-old housing manifestly unsuitable for heat pumps?
The UK is getting that – for new houses at least, in a few months if the press reports are correct.
Plus retro fit.
https://retrofitskills.org – £17,000 Million. Just for – not London, but only South London.
The press doesn’t mention where the electricity for actually running those – unwanted – heat pumps will come from.
Peculiarly.
And mandatory solar on new houses, too, soon.
This is in the UK.
All of the UK is north of Winnipeg, Canada. Parts of it are north of Moscow, Russia [where, for the avoidance of doubt, the Poisoner has his HQ].
But this seems not to have intruded on the thought processes of our Housing secretary, one’Big Ange’ – Angela Rayner, who also is our Deputy Prime Minister [to 2 Tier, Free Gear, Not Here, Kier, Sir Starmer himself].
And folk wonder why Nigel Farage is mopping up votes as if there is no tomorrow.
[Which might in fact be the case for the UK as a part of 21st century – even 19th Century – civilisation …]
6 days work in the fields for 80% of the population …
Very old not excluded, but the young, and attractive, may become concubines.
Auto
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We could quickly build HELE coal plants in Australia. Despite the adverse Green story about lignite, without the 2/3 water contents it is as potent as black coal. In Victoria we have 300 years worth, possibly 600. And we used to have town gas from the same coal. All dismantled now but quick enough to build, especially without the $200Billion in State debt to build roads and tunnels which were not needed. We have been robbed by State governments too, people borrowing hundreds of billions for stuff we did not need or could have built simpler and cheaper.
In Australia state and Federal and Council governments are largely out of control, spending money we don’t have for problems which often don’t exist, like the 5 giant desalination plants built with borrowed cash. 3 have never been used. Over time the cost is $100Billion. For what? The dams are now full.
20
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“The Science” is a perfect example. The scientists know nothing about politics and cannot read the laws which govern them. They trust the politicians.
The politicians know nothing about science and cannot understand the laws which govern them. They trust the scientists.
So we have a new group of scientists, Climate Scientologists who are all knowing. They make up their own science and their friends in the department of money extraction write the laws and the politicians just sign them. After all, they are ‘not scientists’.
Even physicists and engineers are often ignorant of the idea of dynamic equilibrium. That’s chemistry.
Lawyers are often innumerate, but they know how to hide the words Carbon and tax.
And someone came up with the idea of a free trading ‘marketplace’ where prices are set by the community. Except that you are obliged by law to buy at any price, so the price is unavoidable. It does go up and down, but you get nothing for your money.
And recently the accountants are in on the act and came up with Net Zero. Which glorifies the year 2005 as very special in the history of life on earth. And we must struggle and tax and rob people to get back to the magic world climates of 2005.
Except that every last bit of ‘The Science’ is just made up nonsense.
It’s a perfect storm of ignorance and wilful behaviour and carelessness. Not My Problem.
But people at last are reacting to the huge cost of achieving absolutely nothing. And sending all their manufacturing and jobs to China while trying to accommodate huge influxes of people from countries which do not have manufacturing or jobs or even the same set of values. The results are predictable, devastation. Collapsing jobs, collapsing taxation income, housing shortages and free health cover for people who have never contributed.
Good luck to Nigel Farage. Someone has to make Britain Great Again. And it would not hurt for Australia to wake and realise the danger while we save the world with Net Zero.
The first step would be to shut down all the Carbon laws/taxes/credits/cash. And watch as the whole fake ‘renewables’ industry collapses. Good riddance. We can save the whales. But who’s going to save us? Not Chris Bowen or Ed Milliband.
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It’s interesting to note that after wasting billions of $ our Aussie co2 intensity has reduced from 0.27 kilograms per Kwh in 1965 to 0.23 kilos per Kwh in 2023.
China and the NON OECD would dwarf that every month and yet we want to waste TRILLIONs of $ for nothing as we race towards more poverty and bankruptcy.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co2-per-unit-energy?tab=chart&country=~AUS
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Sussan Ley might be elected new leader of the Liberal Party. Apparently she’s in the centre-right faction.
She has consistently voted against Net Zeto by 2035.
https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/farrer/sussan_ley/policies/287
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The Labor party voted the same way as Ley did. In fact nearly the whole House voted the same way except the Greens and couple of Teals.
So I don’t think those couple of votes are a reliable guide to Ley’s position on Net Zero. Other than not by 2035.
The common commentary is that Ley would shift the party left. Dunno if that’s accurate or a throw away line.
20
That’s very likely the case.
Because the Left of the party blame the loss on Dutton being too “TRUMP-like” even though nothing could be further from the truth.
A move to the Left will make the Liberals unelectable and further proves the party believes in nothing, at least nothing worthwhile.
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This is what Sussan Ley said today regarding energy.
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It sounds completely non-committal like all Liberal policies.
Not a vote winner.
In trying to be all things to all people they are nothing to anyone.
00
She has been elected now.
11
Crap!!
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Oh gosh darn, gee willikers, I guess we’re not all going to die in five years … when the politics stop selling.
Sold well for 37 years.
No refunds.
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They will bail on “net zero” because it’s impossible . They will then blame “us” for that . The Liberals lost the election (as opined here) because they sat on the fence ,rather than standing up to the nonsense . I was part of a group addressed by state liberals some time back and they admitted that “climate change” was a boondoggle, but weren’t game to say it . The question for me was whether they were telling us what we wanted to hear or actually believed it themselves .Their lips were moving…
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Is Carl Jung’s Quote a description of Australia today?
The world is full of people suffering from the effects of their own unlived life.
They become bitter, critical, or rigid, not because the world is cruel to them, but because they have betrayed their own inner possibilities.
The artist who never makes art becomes cynical about those who do.
The lover who never risks loving mocks romance.
The thinker who never commits to a philosophy sneers at belief itself.
And yet, all of them suffer, because deep down they know:
the life they mock is the life they were meant to live.
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It’s why champagne was invented. Sounds like Carl needs a glass.
“When I was young, I was poor, but after many years of hard work, I am no longer young.”
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The Liberals will continue hobbling on torn all ways by their irresolution; they’d love to believe in something but nobody can tell them what: poor fella my country eh.
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Poor old “eco populist” Zach, he was so close. Made a bit of sense then fell at the last hurdle still looking for someone to pay for a transition that cannot be achieved and is not needed. Keep going Zach! you will get there eventually.
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I do not think the legacy parties will recover from what they have done. They imposed against the evidence the most damaging policies ever conceived and they attacked anyone who dared to stand up against their insanity. There isn’t an easy way back for them. And, it’s not just the climate, but also the covid jab, and the endless wars and the endless genocides they support. They put our countries massively in debt. They sold future generations to the bankers.
I really do hope that not a single party that used to expect to get to power, ever sees power again.
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