Oxford Politics

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Good leadership

10:00am Wednesday 14th December 2011 in Letters

IT WAS brave of PM David Cameron to give the V sign to Europe. He has shown some true leadership at last.
The eurozone is a sinking ship and frankly we are better off out of the vessel.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy only want us on board their sinking ship in order to exploit our financial services with a transaction tax to bail them out. Sarkozy is two-faced and was really underhand towards our last Prime Minister. He is not to be trusted.
We are better off trading with China as it has not signed up to the loss-making Kyoto protocol and therefore will be able to grow its economy, unlike Europe which has committed itself to this ridiculous treaty. 

SUSAN THOMAS, Magdalen Road, Oxford 

End of an era

10:00am Tuesday 15th November 2011 in Letters

KEITH Mitchell has done a fantastic job as leader of county council and his departure will mark the end of a golden era in Oxfordshire politics.
During his decade of leadership the county was consistently rated as excellent by the Audit Commission.
Keith is an accountant and he has managed the county finances shrewdly.
He also put in a phenomenal amount of overtime into juggling and balancing the books.
He was undoubtedly a safe financial pair of hands, unlike many politicians and bankers.
He is neither extravagant nor wasteful and that is a rare attribute in this reckless age.
Sadly his own party has let him down with the stringent local Government budget cuts.
Keith should have a word with David Cameron and William Hague about the misguided policy of increasing foreign expenditure at the expense of local spending. Much foreign aid is ending up in corrupt departments. One African official has spent millions on a property portfolio in Mayfair with the foreign aid.
The local Government spending cuts have led to a furore over library closures. A moderate, blue-stockinged lady was incensed at her description as a radical left winger when she voiced concerns about library closures.
Keith, who I have always found to be polite, charming and courteous, is understandably stressed and has lost his diplomacy under pressure.
He certainly has a way with words and I will miss his hilarious comments and hope he continues to write to the Oxford Mail. 

SUSAN THOMAS, Magdalen Road, Oxford

Turbine spells trouble

I TOTALLY sympathise with the Harwell villagers’ protests against a wind farm on their doorsteps and they are certainly not ‘nimbys’.
These large concrete structures are not so very green or renewable either. They use huge amounts of concrete, which is not a green material and need a lot of maintenance and repairs.
Remember the damaged blades at Conisholme wind farm that some UFO enthusiasts thought was caused by an alien encounter?
It was probably caused by ice build-up on a static blade during a freezing winter anti-cyclone.
The subsidies for these endless repairs come from hikes in green taxes in all our energy bills.
These surcharges added to fuel bills hit pensioners and the poor hardest.
Never mind if impoverished people freeze to death if the winter is harsh again because the wealthy chattering classes who are worried about global warming will be smugly satisfied to see our beautiful landscape littered with these gargantuan follies.
The only people benefiting from wind farm turbines are generally the rich landowners who become even more wealthy at the expense of the ordinary citizen. Lots of people have become very rich on the green carbon-con pound at the expense of others.
Turbines damage wildlife and the infrasound can be very unpleasant and may be linked to health problems.
Infrasounds at seven cycles per second causes anxiety and nausea.
Wind turbines do not protect the environment; they damage the countryside.
It is time for some innovative thinking for energy supply as I predict that one day all wind farms will be dismantled as they are really not that cost effective.
SUSAN THOMAS

HUDSPETH TRANSPORT STRATEGY MISTAKES

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Traffic schemes end in disaster

4:59pm Sunday 15th June 2008

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It seems that every time Oxfordshire County Council pours money into a new traffic scheme, it ends in disaster.
At least Ian Hudspeth, the cabinet member for transport, has had the decency to admit that the Conservatives have got it all wrong in Abingdon (Oxford Mail, June 10).
The £3.1m squandered on a fatuous strategy would have been better diverted to other departments, such as social services for the elderly.
If the whole transport department had taken itself off to the Bahamas with the money, the roads of Oxfordshire would probably be in a safer and better condition.
It is not only Mr Hudspeth who makes mistakes, however.
His Conservative predecessor, David Robertson, managed to turn Cowley Road, Oxford, into a wibbly, wobbly way, without the aid of psychedelics!
SUSAN THOMAS

ICE AGE IS COMING IN 2012

THERE HAS BEEN MUCH TALK OF GLOBAL WARMING BUT MUCH LESS INTEREST IN THE SCENARIO OF A FUTURE ICE AGE. 

The prevailing dogma is that carbon dioxide emissions are increasing and will inevitably lead to global warming based on the premise of Svante Arrhenius of the role of this gas in the greenhouse effect.

Not being one to follow the herd I have questioned this assumption from the start and have now concluded that it is erroneous. This does not mean that I am not an environmentalist either. It is possible to care passionately about the environment and the damage that man is inflicting on the earth yet still to question the very poor science behind the prevailing zeitgeist.

Indeed the science does not stand up to empirical scrutiny and the data collected is virtually useless.

One third of the climate data was input by the now discredited University of East Anglia. To put it mildly they have been falsifying the data for the last decade and the Met Office has been using this data. So the next time you hear from the Met Office that this was the warmest decade for a century it would be wise to take it with a pinch of salt.

The problem has partly arisen from the huge funding available for global warming research which has encouraged corruption on a truly massive scale. Statistics and graphs have been toyed with to produce the results expected by Government. No wonder the Russians  who have been,blamed for Climategate are annoyed. All their data from their  freezing Siberian weather stations was discounted by Phil Jones team to make  the graphs fit the faulty hypothesis. It is not just this CRU that has been up to mischief. I have inside information that leads me to conclude that a lot more scientists are colluding in the deception.

The sad irony of this fallacy that CARBON IS THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL  is the proliferation of dangerous nuclear power stations  as a means to lower carbon emissions.Plutonium is zillions of times more deadly than non .toxic carbon dioxide

A terrible legacy to leave our children.

POWER BLACKOUT FEARS

Many experts are predicting blackouts in the imminent future and indeed this has already occurred.

Power cuts can cost lives as well as seriously damaging the economy.

This is due to the renewable energy quota that we have been saddled with from Europe. During the recent power cut not one of the two thousand wind turbines came to the rescue Indeed had they managed to input any energy into the Grid the situation may well have been exacerbated.

During very cold weather caused by an anti cyclone there is no wind either .Solar panels not much use in winter either if covered in snow.

Caroline Lucas has been very busy in Europe and the result will not be beneficial to our economy.

There will be grave economic problems ahead when we close nine coal fired power stations to comply with the Large Combustion Plant Directive; a move that will have no impact whatsoever on the climate I may add.

It is a syllogism to infer that because coal happens to be black it must be dirty.

Mining our  buried  treasured  resources leads to prosperity.

When Great Britain was the wealthiest nation on Earth industry was driven by KING COAL and Britannia Ruled the Waves!

 Some say it is not economic to mine our own coal.

 I say let us find a way to make it worth reopening a coal mine or two and get all those once proud mining communities back to work and off incapacity benefit.

The Green Party have inflicted huge economic damage via Europe and their unproven hypotheses of anthropogenic warming.

The CFL light bulbs are another travesty we have the Greens to thank for. They are full of mercury, a powerful neurotoxin and will pollute the Environment in the long term.

Please note that one can be a keen environmentalist and not subscribe to the doctrines that carbon is the root of all evil and that CFL bulbs will save the planet. Both premises are incorrect.

Labour has made a mistake in slavishly adopting the policies of the Greens. By all means let us explore new technologies and ways of power generation but only in a measured and calculating manner.

Do we really want to give Denmark millions of pounds for their wind turbines? No is the obvious answer. We need to make our own and explore tidal projects using British engineers.

Thermonuclear fusion energy generation is unlikely to succeed in our lifetime; or the next for that matter as the theory is incorrect.

Therefore ITER is also another blind alley.(INTERNATIONAL THERMONCLEAR  REACTOR)

It is ironic that the Green Party has now found itself in the ridiculous situation of having to back NUCLEAR FISSION as a means to plugging the energy gap caused by their LARGE COMBUSTION PLANT DIRECTIVE. This was the Party that spent years organising anti nuclear demonstrations!!!

They have got themselves in a political mess but still people vote for them in the erroneous belief that they will save the planet. Actually I foresee that their policies will bring environmental damage if the GM lobby succeed in pushing their GLOBAL WARMING AGENDA.

Regarding nuclear energy, this may have been a lucrative option had we not sold out on our own brilliant nuclear scientists years ago.

Now we are at the mercy of French power giants.

All so short sighted and all so very avoidable.

TIME TO GAZE INTO OUR CRYSTAL BALL, if we are TO AVOID SIMILAR FINANCIAL ERRORS.

Energy is where the big bucks are to be made but NOT THE CLIMATE.

Climate issues have become confused with ETHICAL MAN. However it is still possible to ethically care for the environment without subscribing to the CARBON IS EVIL FALLACY.

Carbon in the form of coal equals energy equals wealth.

Nuclear Power is being promoted as being environmentally friendly due to low carbon emissions. A truly massive error and one that future generations will curse us for…..  So says my crystal ball.

It takes just one speck of plutonium to cause cancer.

When Colwyn Bay flooded an analysis of the silt by geologists found traces of DEADLY PLUTONIUM. This could only have originated from Sellafield.

Thus, coal is probably the lesser of the two evils in the long run.We do have a thousand years of the stuff to use,. By 3000A.D. we will have perfected micro cold fusion devices so no need to feel guilty about using up our coal reserves for now,

Ed Miliband has gone all Evangelical in his new role, would be prudent to rename the position as SECRETARY FOR ENERGY AND ENTERPRISE. He will probably end up as Leader of the Labour Party because of this saintly role.

Therefore keep an eye on Greg Clark. ENERGY EQUALS POWER.

It is a potentially very important position on par with that of Home Secretary.

Finally my sister has told me to retract my comments re AID to overseas .She says it is BAD KARMA, Still it is a fact that it is a waste of money to try and prevent global warming, An ice age will inflict far greater damage to the World economy.  Last year thousands of pensioners died because of the cold weather, COLD WEATHER EQUALS FINANCIAL RUIN

Sea levels will not rise if carbon dioxide levels rise and the Maldives will not be flooded either, Tsunamis and tidal floods are caused by plate tectonics not by global warming.

The Government also wasted millions on that inane advert about global warming.

I am sure that Lloyd George is turning in his grave at what has become of this country. Did Great Britain dish out billions of pounds then to other countries to help combat global warming???

Did the Industrial Revolution during which tons of coal were burnt IN MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISE cause an increase in temperatures??

NASA was trying to find the answer to this question when it launched a satellite to search for this unaccounted for carbon dioxide. Unfortunately the satellite crashed into the sea leaving the mystery of the missing carbon dioxide emissions unanswered. NASA need not have bothered with wasting so much money on the project. Most carbon dioxide is recycled into the soil or plants. Back to school NASA!!

And lastly let us not forget that we currently have no reliable empirical scientific data to prove any rise in world temperatures.

Even the Met Office data has to now be discounted in the light of CLIMATEGATE. So the next time someone solemnly professes that

This has been the warmest decade on record take it with a pinch of Salt.

That is if there is any left.

ATOMIC ENERGY TRANSFORMATION PROMOTER ITER

ATOMIC ENERGY TRANSFORMATION PROMOTER  2010

Energy can be gained from the fission of heavier elements or the fusion of lighter elements.

Nuclear fusion has proved more difficult to achieve on earth though is thought to occur in stars like our sun which has an abundance of lighter elements such as hydrogen.

The theory is that to achieve fusion nuclear particles need to be separated from their associated electrons and collide with each other at great speed.

This approach requires very high temperatures and conditions that are difficult to sustain such as the JET venture in Culham.

Instead of inordinately high plasmas why not experiment with different angles of alignment of particles and fields  as a hypothesis to create fusion.

Also try various pulses and adjustable frequencies or resonances.

Remember that our sun has been shown to be humming or singing its own unique song of magnetic frequencies .

We need to try various permutations of song to achieve a lower temperature fusion. Remember that per square metre the sun is not actually that hot at all.

In other words at the start of the atomic reaction the atoms need to be relatively cold and quiescent possibly in crystalline  magnetised form  and not at the wasteful  searing temperatures which are too expensive to maintain as at JET.