Vox Polis

An old copper once told me this story. A group of robbers would hit clothes stores at least once a month. They would break in and steal all the clothes that were hanging on the rack, load them into a van and drive off before the police could arrive. The police tried everything; alarm systems, cameras, surveillance, but each time the robbers would manage to get away before the police arrived. Then one day a young policeman came up with the idea of turning all the clothes racks in the shops round the other way, so when the robbers came in they couldn’t just grab them off the rack. Sure enough the robbers broke into the store, and went to grab the clothes but found they wouldn’t move, and so they had to remove each one from the clothes hanger. This took so long that the police had time to arrive and they were all arrested.

The moral of this story is not that the criminal will always be caught (untrue), or crime doesn’t pay (true) but that often it is the simplest solution that works. It is the same for our battle over climate change. Government is constantly talking about new technologies, such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as solutions to the global warming problems. But it is the simplest solutions which will in the end yield the most results. Government plans revolve around supply issues; how to make energy production more efficient and less damaging to the environment. But the demand side is as important. We could make some very simply changes to our homes that would certainly help. First of all we need to place the electricity meter in the kitchen. This would make it much easier for people to see the amount of electricity consumed by leaving the lights on or by using the computer. Secondly we need to switch off all those devices that suck up electricity even when their not being used; the televisions and stereos that are left on standby. Of course if you have the money then double glazing and insulation are also good.

Local councils should follow the example of Canterbury City Council who only pick up rubbish every fortnight; the other week is for recycling. The amount of rubbish picked up fortnightly is restricted to one wheelie bin. This forces people to recycle, or be left with piles of slowly rotting rubbish.

Many of us complain about the government’s inaction on climate change; that time is running out and not enough is being done. But there is so much we can do at home or in our local communities.

Vox Polis’ review of the issues surrounding Genetically Engineered crops, found on the GM Truths page, continues this week with a look at different policy procedures adopted in reposne to GE food.
Lesson 2 compares the use of the precuationary principle and substantial equivalence.

For once the EU’s got it right! I knew that politicans never did any work, and this proves it:

Working Hours
Mike Penning: To ask the Prime Minister what EU regulations govern his working hours; what opt outs exist to provide for him to surpass working hour regulations; what court cases are currently before the European courts reviewing the legality of these opt outs; and if he will make a statement.

The Prime Minister: Holders of political offices in the UK are not defined as “workers” under the terms of European working time legislation, and are therefore not subject to the working time limits: as such, they do not need to opt out.

The BBC have put a selection of questions on the subject of digital rights management (DRM) and file sharing to a panel of “top executives” in the music industry. The full set of questions and responses can be found on the BBC website. A selection of the best/worst responses can be found on The Rock Show site.

Pick of the bunch for me is from Peter Jamieson of the BPI on DRM:

DRM is the technology which makes all kinds of exciting new ways of listening to music possible.

Sigh…the management side of the music industry haven’t had an exciting idea for 40 years, the idea of them becoming gate-keepers for ideas in the future is repellent. The solution to the problem is to boycott DRM encumbered music until they see the error of their ways. Good starting points for this are here and here.

Ive been trying to get Osama to plug our blog for a while…but he keeps saying we’re not critical enough of America.

BBC article

Real political power stems from the ability to raise taxes. That Prussian king, Frederick summed it up best when he said “No government can exist without taxation. This money must necessarily be levied on the people; and the grand art consists of levying so as not to oppress.” Clearly they didn’t call him Frederick the Great for nothing. Tax is a major reason why the government’s plans to create regional assemblies has been discarded into the bottomless well of badly thought out, badly received New Labour policies. Without real teeth and tax raising powers the regional assemblies just became another bureaucratic barrier between the ruled and the rulers. This is why 78% of North Eastern voters rightly rejected in the assembly in 2004.

This is also partly why the EU tractor has broken down in the middle of the field. I like to think of the EU as a tractor because it often gets in the way of other traffic on the road, unwilling to stop to allow others to pass, much to the frustration of everyone else. At the same time the tractor is an important and necessary tool that we wouldn’t want to give up. Surely we wouldn’t want to return to the days of the horse and plough?!

The recent debacles over the EU budget illustrates quite effectively how absurd and quarrelsome the whole EU political process is. It took a year for the leaders to agree to anything that even looked like a plan.

Late night talks in smoke filled rooms ensured that something was scribbled down before the UK handed over its Presidency of the EU, and this was only so Blair could appear to show some achievement at the end of his 6 month reign. But even this may be under threat when the greedy EU parliamentarians this week demanded more money and voted against the budget plans. So how can we get the EU tractor ploughing again?

An EU tax is the answer!

But before you start thinking that maybe horses should be brought back into service, let me explain why an EU tax would bring the EU to the citizens. Currently the EU is funded by member states on an agreed percentage of Gross National Product (GNP), and a mixture of VAT receipts, customs and excise duty.

This leads to some countries (Britain, France and Germany etc) paying more than others (Estonia, Latvia etc). But the agreement over the level of GNP is decided by leaders who spend months wrangling over how much it should be as we saw with last years budget free-for-all. National leaders are usually more preoccupied with how much they’ll get back from such things as structural funds and CAP payments. If we introduced a tax to fund the EU, much of this process could be done away with. If this was achieved by introducing an EU income tax it would be progressive (those who earn more pay more), so those from poor countries would pay less than those from rich countries. The total amount we paid would probably be much the same as before (as long as it was set at a fair level). But fundamentally it would be transparent. We would know how much the EU was costing us, and therefore we would take a greater interest in what happens. If we also gave the tax raising powers to the EU parliament, suddenly we would care who won the European election. Turnout would definitely increase from the frankly sickening current 30%. The citizens of Europe would also care what that money was spent on, and real debate on funding priories would take place. Maybe then the CAP would be reformed. The EU institutions have in the past been accused of corruption and embezzlement; these issues would be dealt with swiftly and properly with real democratic financial controls.

An EU tax is the key to Europe’s legitimacy and democratic problems. We can ill afford a repeat of recent events.

Austria decided to launch its Presidency of the EU by attempting to “sex up” the European Union with this (not safe for work). Did it work?

The Austrian launch not only included the above (which was also displayed on motorway advertising boards - Drivers beware!) but pictures (also not work-safe) of “three people writhing naked while wearing masks of Queen Elizabeth II, US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac.”

In comparision the UK presidency decided on this (very work safe).

It seems that the Austrians didn’t realise the pictures might cause offence and dropped them after only a couple of days. Good to see that the EU budget is being put to good use. Shame they took them down really. Were you offended?

Plans to construct windfarms in upstate New York have run into difficulties caused by local residents fearful of the effects that the turbines will have. The usual issues are present such as the aesthetic problem of having 40 windmills in the back garden but there were some more unusual complaints as well…

• The sound of the turbines being similar to those used for torture by the Nazis during WW2.
• Pulsating sunlight seen through the blades leading to strokes.
• Turbines linked to increased incidence of mange in cattle.
• Living near the windmills causing women to have up to 5 menstrual cycles in a month.

Thankfully it seems that democracy is prevailing and wealthy landowners (who will receive payments for windmills on their land) are pushing through planning permission.

More over at Wired.

From the creators of Agent Orange and those who brought you the “terminator gene” comes a new story of a heroic multinational’s campaign to save European farmers from the tyranny of growing traditional crops and using ancient farming methods. Monsanto stars as itself in this new battle to replace all maize with its “Genetically enhanced” and superior super seeds that will end hunger across Europe. It will take the fight to Europe to help the over worked and under paid farmers, and at last feed the impoverished masses of Europe by growing 24 million acres of its Roundup Ready maize.

This story also tells of one nation’s fight to defeat the evil protectionists who have tried to enslave market forces by harnessing the power of the precautionary principle to delay the growing of GE crops. This is the story of the last of the superpowers; using its World Trade powers, the US fights to force the evildoers to accept GE food and liberate the supermarket shelves. This summer we can expect an action packed adventure when the US harnesses the secret WTO powers to bring fair competition to the world.

Coming to fields near you soon.
Get ready to take Genetics to new levels!
Are you ready to be Modified?
This is based on real events.

Had enough of the shadowy military-industrial complex using fear of terrorism to win more contracts for minefields? Well the Mother Nature’s pitbulls at Greenpeace have decided to jump on the bandwagon as well with this slightly hysterical piece of fakery.

The Vox Polis team are fully behind microgeneration for future energy needs but we have to admit that a plane crashing into your roof mounted wind turbine could cause some problems so caveat emptor.