Booker On Global Warming

I attended an interesting gathering hosted by The Freedom Association last night at the Swan Hotel in Wells with Christopher Booker as the principal speaker and guest of honour.

The talk acted as somewhat of a preview to his forthcoming book titled The Real Global Warming Disaster: Is the obsession with ‘climate change’ turning out to be the most costly scientific blunder in history? which is out soon, and laid out the case against anthropogenic Global Warming.

Having read Richard North and Christopher Booker’s The Great Deception, Scared to Death, and both the Booker column and Richard North’s EU Referendum, much of the content of the speech was pretty familiar. However, it is always appreciable, as Booker noted in his speech, to be able to meet other people of likeminded opinions in warm and friendly surroundings.

A video of the event should be available on the internet at some point in the near future. There were also amusing speeches from TFA Chairman, Roger Helmer MEP and the Democratic Unionist Party MP Sammy Wilson. All in all a very enjoyable night, and a welcome opportunity to finally meet Mr Booker before he, in his own words, is ‘tucked up safely in the church yard across the way’. Hopefully such an event will not be for many years hence!

The Continuation Of Failure

The conference season in this country was, as fully expected, entirely predictable. Politicians from all parties rose to the stage in turn to feign concern and tell of the need for ‘hope’, ‘optimism’ and of course that old favourite, ‘change’.

Yet, despite an entire lack of real substance emanating from any of the party conference halls, the career-minded journalists and media groupies still blindly held court at the politician’s feet, seemingly hanging on every word that was uttered as if it were something of great importance.

Sadly, and as has become abundantly clear within these past few years, we in Britain no longer live in a democracy, but have in fact entered a post-democratic era where the façade of elections and freedom remains cunningly intact but their true attainability has long since been stripped away.

The Conservative conference in Birmingham this week confirmed yet again that we no longer have an effective opposition in this country, with David Cameron pledging to persist with the majority of Labour’s failing policies with only a few minor alterations.

And even if the Conservative party was actually attempting to be radically different to the current Labour administration (which the party leadership have no intention of doing, nor the liberal media any intention of allowing) and then also managed to win the next election (which is not actually as likely as is currently made out), then they would still only be in office, not in power.

For we in this country do not, for the most part, run our own affairs or elect those that actually govern us. Over decades our power of self rule has been frittered away by politicians from all parties who have cared more about themselves than the future of the British citizenry.

Our lives are now ever increasingly governed by corrupt, undemocratic European institutions and an unaccountable and stifling domestic bureaucracy – and, for the moment at least, there is very little we can do to extract ourselves from this mess.

The Freedom By-Election

Not all that much of a surprise was the re-election of David Davis as MP for Haltemprice and Howden in the by-election held on Thursday.

As had been predicted, Mr Davis comfortably won the poll by some fifteen thousand votes against an assortment of twenty seven candidates that conspicuously lacked any representation from the Labour party.

During the early hours and days of his resignation, Mr Davis stirred up quite a media and public storm. Across the country Conservative Associations received phone calls from members of the public telling of their support for David Davis and the issues of freedom despite never having voted Conservative.

However, come the day of the vote and result, the ever fickle media’s interest had worn away and very little was made of the result – which I suppose in part is unsurprising given that Mr Davis received no challenge from a Labour party candidate over the issues of freedom surrounding detention without charge.

As I commented previously, I suspect that David Cameron would have rather preferred to back the Government’s plans on detention without charge if he’d had the opportunity. However, I think it was very much down to David Davis’ actions that the Conservative party has now publicly pledged to do away with the legislation if it forms the next Westminster administration.

A Wilted Clover

Whatever the result of the Irish Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty tomorrow, its final statistical outcome will matter very little.

While supporters of both the YES and NO camps would celebrate a victory for their respective side, the final reckoning is predestined – the Lisbon Treaty will become law in the twenty seven EU member states and there is nothing we or the Irish people can do to prevent it.

As we all well know, if the result tomorrow in Ireland is not the one that the European Union and its supporters want then they will simply ask the Irish people again, and again and again until they do receive the desired response. However, this is of course assuming that the EU would willingly tolerate the formality of another public referendum, which it may not.

A more likely scenario would seem to be that Irish and EU leaders will simply collude behind the backs of the Irish electorate at the next European Council and ratify the Lisbon Treaty (most of which has already been stealthily implemented) despite a NO vote.

This may well involve the Irish Government claiming that a few token concessions from the EU that will be offered up during ‘negotiation’ this time around (naturally only to be done away with in the next EU Treaty the Irish will sign) is enough to make another democratic consultation of the people unnecessary.

Either that, or all EU member states will agree to continue with the process of ratification without Ireland who would be allowed to join at a later stage if they so wish – which of course they will.

Therefore, the result of the Irish decision tomorrow is entirely irrelevant to the European Union. Its continuous drive towards ever closer union will rumble on undeterred and more and more of our powers, rights and freedoms will be willingly signed over to unelected Commissioners and Bureaucrats in Brussels by our own selfish, pampered and increasingly irrelevant representatives in Parliaments across the European continent.

Within a week our House of Lords will vote on whether there should be a Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty in Britain. It is highly likely that the Lords and thus Parliament will agree with the Government and decide that there is no need for the people to be consulted. In so doing they will consign to the past this country’s long and celebrated history of being an independent, democratic and free nation. How did it come to this?