You are currently browsing the daily archive for December 6th, 2006.
Chancellor Gordon Brown has pledged to allow new homes to be exempt from stamp duty for an as yet undefined period of time if they have a zero carbon rating.
He also pledged to ensure that all UK housing was carbon free within the next 10 years…
To keep costs down in what is increasingly a skyrocketing construction cost environment and to begin to implement this new scheme as quickly as possible, prepare to see developers launch a frenzied buy up of cave space. However, as we know caves have traditionally been heated using carbon-emitting open wood fires.
But as that form of heating is absolutely no longer acceptable, to qualify for the carbon exemption all those caves will probably need to have solar installed.
Obviously, to save the planet, going back to 1250 is not NEARLY radical enough.
Iraq’s elected prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, quoted by the BBC, November 30:
…”I believe that the Iraqi security forces are capable enough of protecting the country and its citizens against those who seek to undermine their safety.”
America should begin withdrawing combat troops from Iraq, Washington experts have advised…
Good thing those experts are so willing to go out on a limb . . . considering that the elected Iraqi government is now willing to state publicly that it believes it no longer needs to be “propped up” by foreign troop support.
So why the pessimistic debate over the war not being won . . . or for that matter, being tied? For while the conflict is certainly not “concluded”, it had never seemed likely in the first place to finish in a dramatic “Lee surrendering to Grant” or “armistice signed in Compiègne” moment. But it would also appear hard to argue with the assertion that if the Iraqi government that was not in existence even three years ago now feels increasingly capable of maintaining its own existence, the war would seem at least to be clearly “being won”.
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UPDATE: Frank Warner has an interview with Capt. Eric Coulson in Anbar. Interestingly, in comparison last night CNBC Europe broadcast “Leno” from Dec 1, on which Sen. Barack Obama was the headline guest. Iraq seems to be one of the first foreign conflicts in history in which serving soldiers are more optimistic and big picture oriented than many of their ostensibly Olympian-minded political masters back at home.
UPDATE 2: December 7: Relatedly, according to Murdoc, this was made BEFORE Steve Irwin’s death:
Almost three-quarters of consumers are clueless as to what their tax is spent on, a poll shows…
…A total 82 billion pounds is spent on health per annum and 63 billion pounds on education, compared to 28 billion pounds on defence.
Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, said: “As almost 40 percent of our gross income is spent on tax — dwarfing the cost of mortgages, cars or holidays — it’s worrying so few people have a clue where it’s spent.
…”Rather than opaquely reading out impenetrable stats, as the Chancellor will do today (in the pre-budget report), we should all be told honestly, transparently and in clear language where our money goes.”
His “opaqueness” and “impenetrable stats” aren’t the main problem. Few laymen (who, unlike Madam, are busy with merely keeping a roof over their heads) actually have the time or inclination to pay close attention to those. Most people of course get such information via the media filter, and interestingly today the Press Association tells voters:
Gordon Brown is expected to deliver a boost to schools by putting education and skills at the heart of what will almost certainly be his final Pre-Budget report (PBR) as Chancellor…
…The Chancellor’s tenth and last Pre-Budget Report will be dominated by his efforts to put education and skills at the top of his personal agenda…
And one story on AOL UK’s front page this morning appears to laud the “new direction”:
However, as the BBC had told us back in October 2001:
…Any real-terms increase in military spending might put pressure on other departmental budgets, notably Labour’s priority areas of health and education…
So education has for ages already been “at the heart” of Labour budgetary priorities. Thus Mr Brown today isn’t “putting” anything anywhere it isn’t already. But media’s framing his budgetary ”personal agenda” in the manner of The Press Association, The Times and AOL conveys the distinct misimpression to readers that before now priorities actually had been decidedly elsewhere . . . but that Mr Brown is now statesmanly going to be swimming against the tide in redirecting spending towards a whole new, previously much-neglected, area.
So who’s really responsible for the public’s failure to grasp where their money goes? Hmmmmm?
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