Here’s to you Mrs. Robinson!
Peter Robinson is not a person I warm to.
I should say that a lot of this is coloured by his predecessor the Reverend Ian Paisley, who was not a person I’d have allowed into my address book. As an atheist, I have a lot of respect for many religious leaders, but Paisley, his obscene views, vile rhetoric and his aggressive stance towards those who disagree with him, just mean that only a bigot can respect him.
But I did feel a bit sorry for Peter Robinson, when it became known that his wife had had an affair with a nineteen-year-old boy.
However after reading his view on homosexuality on Wikipedia.
On 30 October 2008 in his first extensive interview as First Minister interview for Hearts and Minds for BBC Northern Ireland, Peter Robinson publicly endorsed the controversial view, also shared by his wife Iris Robinson, that homosexuality was against Christian theology.
Robinson said: “It wasn’t Iris Robinson who determined that homosexuality was an abomination, it was The Almighty. This is the Scriptures. It is a strange world indeed where somebody on the one hand talks about equality, but won’t allow Christians to have the equality, the right to speak, the right to express their views.”
The comments angered LGBT Christian groups throughout the UK. Also, the Christian Bible also condemns adultery, which Mr Robinson’s 60 year old wife has recently publicly admitted to with a 19 year old Roman Catholic man – this admission only came after a BBC investigation.
The Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister is tasked with promoting “better community relations” and “a culture of equality and rights” in Northern Ireland, including for Christians and gay people.
There is a quote “As you sow, so shall you reap” from Galatians VI.
At the present, Peter Robinson is declining to resign. Here’s a quote of his on allowing the IRA to join the democratic process.
You don’t corrupt the democratic process in the hopes that terrorists might toe the line. To get into this club, you have to accept the rules of the club. You give up your weaponry, you accept democratic and peaceful means — and that entitles you to be part of the democratic process.
It is alleged that he broke the rules, by not declaring his wife’s financial interests and is now under pressure by his party to resign.
I will not be sorry to see him go.
The next installment is on Panorama tonight. Will I watch it? Probably not! The pair of them are not worth the time that could be better spent on something else.
Malcolm Turnbull
I had never really heard much about Malcolm Turnbull, who was the leader of the Australian Liberal Party. But he wrote a thoughtful article in The Times on Sunday. The title says it all, It’s reckless to be a sceptic on global warming.
He makes some interesting points. Take these key paragraphs.
I recognise that many people are sceptical about the science. But as Margaret Thatcher pointed out 20 years ago, this is an exercise in risk management. Given that the consequences of unchecked global warming would be catastrophic, responsible leaders should give the planet the benefit of the doubt. Few of us imagine our house is going to burn down tonight, but most of us will have taken out insurance.
So the political or indeed moral issue is not whether you are totally convinced by the climate change thesis, but what you propose to do about it. Being sceptical about climate change is not unreasonable; doing nothing about it is reckless.
He’s right. Those that advocate doing nothing are just plain wrong.
He also makes the point that most climate change deniers have their youth behind them. That is curious or is it that they have saved for and want to enjoy their retirement and then all these restrictions come along and ruin it.
I certainly am no climate change denier and know we must cut emissions. But we should do it in a scientifically correct way, that will deliver large cuts, so that we leave our descendants the maximum benefit.
Politicians Have Little Effect
I found an article, by Matthew Paris in The Times on Saturday, entitled What have politicians done for them? Zilch.
He was referring to Malawi and Zimbabwe and it is a profound article by someone who writes with thought and also knows that part of Africa.
What with the farcical non-binding agreement at Copenhagen and Prudence’s efforts to try to help the economy, I would suspect that it doesn’t just apply to Africa.
Hot Air in Copenhagen
So today, the big climate change conference starts in Copenhagen. Yawn! Yawn!
I’m cynical anything of any substance will emerge.
Prudence bashes on about how he is at the forefront of reducing our energy use, but this article in the Telegraph says otherwise.
These are two paragraphs from the article.
His former chief scientist Professor Sir David King said he frequently urged Downing Street to spend money on energy saving measures in order to create jobs and cut carbon – but was repeatedly ignored.
And in a separate interview with the Daily Telegraph, the world’s top environmental watchdog Achim Steiner, the head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), also said the Labour Government failed to “pick the low hanging fruit” of insulating homes and investing in renewable energy.
Typical Prudence, all waffle and bluster, and absolutely no substance. He doesn’t even have any style.
But I’m totally against this sort of junket. It should be done remotely by electronic means, with perhaps two or three important people from each country in Copenhagen to dot i’s and cross t’s.
Ed Miliband and Disposable Nappies
Ed Miliband is getting a lot of criticism over using disposable nappies on his six-year-old son. Here’s the Independent.
This is absolutely right!
We used proper nappies for all our three sons. I know it was around 1970, but the pressure to use disposable ones was even then great from the manufacturers. I must admit, that we did use a disposable liner in the nappies, but this meant that you saved on the washing as the nappies weren’t so dirty. Tricks like this make proper nappies much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than disposables, which make up four percent of all household waste and end up in landfill.
The real luxury though was for the last baby, where we used a nappy service. You just put the dirty nappies in a bucket and a cheery guy collected them as he returned the freshly laundered ones. Much easier than anything else!
I think that I’ve heard that some councils are subsidising nappy services to cut the disposable ones going into landfill. If they aren’t, they should look at it.
Shame on you Miliband!
Lowering the Drink Drive Limit
The government has asked a legal expert to examine whether the drink drive limit should be lowered.
I’m not bothered for myself, as I usually only drink a reasonable amount each night in the privacy of my own home. Strangely, over the past few months, when I have gone out for a drink, it’s usually been for a meal as well and the amount I’ve drunk has been usually in the order of a glass of wine. Or I’ve been on a bicycle or driven by one of my children, none of whom drink alcohol.
But I am bothered for the pubs I visit locally. Will they still survive if patrons don’t drink? I suspect that as we never see a policeman in this part of Suffolk, that no-one would get caught unless they crashed.
But the whole episode shows the stupidity of Prudence and his government. He would never get the law on the statute book before the next election, so he would surely lose enough votes in the run-up to make it absolutely sure that Labour was voted out by a landslide.
The other parties must be laughing their heads off.
But anyway it’s all right for our national politicians. They live a lot of the time in London with tubes, buses and taxis. Many of them too have chauffeurs.
If like me you live in deepest Suffolk, we have no buses and tubes, and taxis to get home will often cost more than a meal for one with wine.
Brown Uses the D-Word
As I drove back home today, I was listening to Prudence’s speech to businessmen.
He then used the D-word – dynamism. I can remember Peter Ryrie using that many times as he tried to dominate student politics in the 1960s at Liverpool University.
I laughed, as we all used to mock Peter for the word.
Sadly though, I’ve found that Peter died in 2007.
I Back the Judges
Senior judges are at odds with David Milliband over documents concerning interrogations in the US.
Here’s the first two paragraphs of the BBC report.
Senior judges say the foreign secretary is stopping them releasing details of CIA interrogation techniques – even though the US has published them.
The High Court says it wants to refer to previously classified documents as part of its judgement on the alleged mistreatment of Binyam Mohamed.
Interestingly, it would appear that the BBC’s web page links to the documents on the American Civil Liberties Union.
So if we can all read them on the web, why can’t the judges use them?
But then we are never given the truth by government when it suits them. Chevaline was the codename of the project by the Callaghan Government to update the Polaris missiles in the 1970s. It was kept secret for years and only a few years ago, the only full reference to it on the Internet was on the Federation of American Scientists.
We need a lot more information to be published. And not about MPs expenses, which is just peanuts compared to the dark and terrible secrets of things that governments do in our name.
Gordon Brown
I won’t comment on the policies of the main parties, as they were debated in Parliament after the Queen’s Speech today. To me they are irrelevant, as we must get on with the task of sorting the mess out, rather than scoring points.
But I’ve never heard Prudence sound so tired and almost shot to pieces. He’s not a good or jaunty speaker, but he was as uninspiring as you can get. There didn’t seem to be any conviction in his words, no passion, just the repeating of tired phrases.
He should go! And in the manner suggested by The Moody Blues.
The Anonymous Widower 