May 23 2013

 

Frying pan to fire

Spare a thought for Cllr David Bryan who recently surrendered his status as an unaffiliated independent to join the county council's Tory group - increasing its membership from two to three (50%) in the process.
Cllr Bryan, a long-time card-carrying Tory, was first elected as an independent in 2004 and immediately joined the IPG (as it was then known) where he rose to be chairman of the older persons scrutiny committee.
As part of the ruling group Cllr Bryan had to endure a string of insults in this column about synchronised voting, lack of dictionaries and similarities to sheep and poodles.
Worst of all was the description of the IPG as the oxymoron party by the Western Telegraph, no less.
Following the 2012 election Cllr Bryan eventually saw the light and became an unaffiliated member, though, as it took him eight years nobody can accuse him of being quick on the uptake.
Now, just over a year later, he has gone over to the Tories and within two weeks he finds himself being described by one of the party's top brass as a swivel-eyed loon.
Poor timing, or what?
Still he could have joined UKIP and had David Cameron characterise him as a "loony fruitcake".
Meanwhile, I hear that the Preseli Pembrokeshire Labour party has adopted Neyland's Cllr Paul Miller as its candidate for the next General Election.
This is quite a departure for Labour because the last two candidates for the seat have been parachuted in from outside with entirely predictable outcomes.
Indeed, looking at past results, I notice that the only time Labour has held the seat has been when it fielded a local candidate.
Of course, what might affect the result even more than the candidate's origins is whether UKIP can field a credible candidate.
In that case we will see how many fruitcakes and swivel-eyed loons reside in the constituency.
Enough to give Stephen Crabb some sleepless nights, I wouldn't be surprised.

Organic voodoo

There was an interesting item on the Today programme earlier this week on recent research which shows that a mother's lack of iodine during pregnancy can have a serious adverse effect on the IQ of her children.
The main sources of dietary iodine are fish and dairy products with the latter being by far the most common.
What was most surprising was revelation that organic milk is vastly inferior in this respect to the ordinary variety.
This is due, apparently, to organic farming's dependence on clover - an iodine-blocker - as a source of nitrogen in grass production.
Subsequent news reports on this story totally ignored this important piece of health information, though given the BBC's love affair with the Soil Association I would bet it would have been shouted from the rooftops had organic milk been shown to be beneficial.
By happy coincidence, this week's "The life scientific" on Radio 4 featured Prof Sir John Krebs, former head of the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
It will be recalled that, a few years ago, the FSA brought out a report which concluded that there were no health or nutritional benefits from eating organic food.
This caused outrage among the muesli-eating, sandal-wearers, but Sir John stuck to his guns.
As he explained on the radio, he felt it was his duty to inform the public that to pay extra for organic food in the belief that it was better for their health was a complete waste of money.
Of course, if anyone opted to consume organic food as a result of a lifestyle-choice that was different matter.
Interestingly, Sir John has got on the wrong side of another powerful lobby group - the National Farmers Union - as a result of research he conducted which concluded that culling badgers was ineffective as a method of tackling TB in cattle.
This research is accepted as gospel by the the environmental movement.
This is a classic example of cherry-picking.
Sir John is an expert when he agrees with you and a fool when he doesn't.
Another example of this phenomena is the so-called scientific consensus on climate change.
Leaving aside the point I made last week: that science doesn't proceed by consensus, it is interesting to note that the very people who pray in aid the consensus on climate change simultaneously reject the scientific consensus on genetically modified foods.
What is occurring here is what is known as "noble cause corruption".
These people genuinely believe that mankind is putting the future of the human race a risk by (a) flooding the atmosphere with CO2 and (b) meddling with nature by manipulating DNA.
Armed with that belief they feel justified in twisting the evidence to persuade us to change our ways.
Of course, we all indulge in noble cause corruption from time to time.
For instance, telling young children lies about Santa Claus in order that they might better enjoy Christmas.
But littering the hillsides with useless windmills and covering the fields with ineffective solar panels in pursuit of this noble cause is a completely different order of things.

 

Effing politicians

 

Two weeks ago, I suggested that, following Cllr Sue Perkins defection to the IPPG, where she joined six other current and former Labour party members, Cllr Michael Williams would have to modify his description of the ruling clique as the party of Farmers, Freemasons and the Far Right to take account of this socialist influx.
When I mentioned this in the members' tea room, Cllr Bob Kilmister came up with the idea of Former Fabians.
So it was now Farmers, Freemasons, Former Fabians and the Far Right.
I asked for other suggestions and readers have been quick to respond.
Cllr Kilmister's "Fabians" was very popular though many thought that "Former" was bit weak and put forward Fake, False, Faithless, Flaky, Flexible, Footloose, and Furtive as alternatives.
Cllr Phil Baker broke the mould by advancing "Floor-crossers" but my favourite, which cleverly retained the alliteration without repeating the "F" was Phoney Fabians.
All I would say to "Disgusted labour voter Pembroke Dock" is that, while your contribution with four consecutive Fs passed the alliteration test with flying colours, it has not been included above for fear of offending public decency.

Myth-makers

All societies need myths.
As T S Eliot observed: "Humankind cannot bear very much reality".
And the horrible murder on the streets of Woolwich has given rise to two of them.
The first is that this sort of atrocity is a perversion of Islam.
But, as Jack Straw pointed out on the midday news, almost all terrorist atrocities since the turn of the century have been the work of Islamic extremists.
If they really are a perversion of Islam, senior figures in the Muslim community must be seen to make every effort to root out these heretics.
The second myth is that we should all carry on as usual.
Anyone who has recently passed through an airport knows this isn't true.
And the counter-terrorism proposal to track everyone's email traffic is hardly business as usual in a free society.
Of course, politicians have a duty to promote these myths in order to prevent something even worse.
There are plenty of fascists who would love to exploit the present situation to foment racial unrest.
So, while David Cameron and Co are justified in trying to keep a lid on the situation with soothing words, they also have a duty to vigorously attack the problem of hate-preachers and British citizens travelling to Pakistan for terrorist training

Changing colours

According to a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, public attitudes to the welfare system have hardened considerably over the past two decades.
A survey carried out for the JRF found that, since 1987, those who thought the unemployed could find a job if they wanted had more than doubled from 27% to 56%.
And what is most surprising is that Labour voters have undergone the biggest change in attitude with three-times as many respondents (16% - 46%) taking the view that people would learn to stand on their own feet if welfare payments were less generous.
Similarly, fewer Labour supporters blamed social injustice for poverty (41% - 27%) while those who attribute poverty to laziness and lack of willpower has risen from 13% - 22%.
The admirable Labour MP Frank Field has been ahead of the game on this issue for a long time.
Don't be surprised if the party leadership catches up in the run up to the next election.

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