First Rant - Raccoons know about life.

The basic idea of this blog is to vent my spleen and get rid of lifes little frustrations. By voicing my opinions through this rant I can go back to the real world in peace and harmony.Who could possibly suspect that I have an inner raccoon.

Man’s influence on the Climate

Scientists are by their nature a cautious bunch. They prefer to double check results and not overstate findings. Raccoons on the other hand like simplicity. A raccoon overview is a bit like an executive overview but without the linguistic obfuscation intended to flatter the reader.

One of the subjects of the blog will be climate change and I’m afraid I’m on the scientists side. I call this the truth, rather than the fossil fuel industry and hedge fund managers side which I call lies.

Climateprediction.net is a volunteer computing, climate modelling project based at the University of Oxford. They have proven statistically that the influence of climate change on the UK weather has increased the chances of extreme weather. See http://www.climateprediction.net/weatherathome/weatherhome-2014/results/

UK Tax

I’m always disappointed that our politicians lie to us. There has been a distinct trend in the last 35 years to push taxes onto those that pay, also known as the poor, and reduce taxes on those that employ tax accountants, known as the rich bastards. All the main political groups are following a stupid tax agenda. I can’t use the word party to describe them. Party to a raccoon means something quite different.

I intend to rant about a few ideas presented by more able and learned people which seem to me to be really sensible. Example Ed Milliband wants a mansion tax. Why do we need another tax when there is a system already in place, called council tax based on house value. Just stick a couple of extra bands on the top and review all houses in the top band. Even a meerkat could do it.

Politics.

I’ve voted for three different parties in the past, but never ever voted for the candidate that won the seat. As almost no politician ever receives 50% of the vote I think that puts me in the silent majority.

As we come up to a general election I’m having difficulty telling the parties apart. One common theme is that none of the candidates want to be seen by the voters. I’m old enough to remember hustings where the candidates would stand up and present their views so that we could judge them and ask a few questions. Now they hide behind party leaflets and let the big names on TV present a party line that their researchers tell them will go down well.

Well Dave, Nick & Ed are all listening politicians. They listen to their researchers but it stops there.

One of my fantasies is to stand in the next election and organise hustings in every village hall, or town and invite all the candidates. Of course none of the main parties would show up. They do not want you to see how weak their candidates are, so I'll rant instead.

Economics

I’m interested in macro economics. Its strictly as an amateur economist, a bit like George Osborne. I’m tired of the lies. Its “labours recession”. “Its Gordon Browns fault”  Well no actually labour didn’t cause the euro zone to implode, they didn’t sell dodgy securitised mortgages to the banks, they didn’t ask the banks to fiddle the markets, they didn’t even borrow excessively.  If you don’t know the cause you can’t solve the problem.

Environment

The current coalition government, is still threatening us with inappropriate green land development and forest sell offs. New legislation in the Infrastructure Bill will allow ministers to transfer public land to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to enable development. The government is refusing to amend the Bill to keep our forests safe. Yes I am a nimby, but its my backyard not yours!