British turkeys vote for Christmas (with more stuffing, please)
The saddest thing about yesterday’s local elections, and that for London Mayor, is that most people voted, somewhat predictably, from an utterly myopic perspective we could term the Dodo Mentality. Did people vote against Labour on the basis of how the party has eroded our civil liberties? No. Phoney war on terror? No. Licking Dubya’s arse? No. Attacking and occupying Iraq? No.
They voted against Labour only for the things that it is arguable Labour can’t be solely blamed for, if at all: the credit crunch, the food crisis pushing up the price of basic foodstuffs, the unaffordability and current unavailability of mortgages. I have many reasons not to vote Labour. Most of them are in the first paragraph above; none are in this one.
tags: blacks, Boris Johnson, Chelsea, clown, congestion charge, Conservatives, democracy, elections, environment, gays, General Election, global warming, greed, Ken Livingstone, Labour, local elections, political correctness, politics, poor, rich, sheep, SUVsEarth Hour
Earth Hour starts in Sydney, Australia, at 20.00 (0900GMT) today. Lights will be turned off for an hour to highlight the threat of climate change. Other participants around the world including London, Chicago, and Bangkok, will follow suit when their clocks reach 20.00 local time.
Despite being a keen news-hawk, I’ve only just found out about this, although apparently Google will be marking the day by putting a dark background on its home page. That’s nice.
I’m not sure how a change of CSS styling is going to help, but hey—it’s the thought that counts, isn’t it? If only. While lights on major landmark buildings will go out, participation by individuals is entirely voluntary and precious few ordinary citizens will be aware of Earth Hour because, in the UK at least, there’s been very little coverage of the event in advance of it happening, in TV and radio news slots and newspaper columns that actually matter—in so far as they are read, listened to, or watched.
tags: climate change, Earth Hour, electricity, fossil fuels, global warming, Google, lights
RIPA NOTICE: NO CONSENT IS GIVEN FOR INTERCEPTION OF PAGE TRANSMISSION