The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Bill 2019-20 will pave the way for the UK to ratify the UK-EU Withdrawal Agreement and thus depart from the European Union (EU) soon thereafter, having received its third reading in the House of Commons just last week. This contribution examines certain major consequences deriving from the Bill becoming law and, in particular, the controversial, but little discussed Clause 26 which (as Lord Pannick remarked in a recent article in the Times) requires particularly careful scrutiny.

Clause 26 introduces in Section 6 of the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 new subsections (5A) through (5D) that allow Ministers of the Crown to issue regulations to any “relevant court or tribunal” on how to interpret and even to disapply EU retained case law as well as domestic case law which relates to EU retained case law. The word ‘relevant’ seems to refer only to those courts that…

Anyone banging on about carbon dioxide gas and climate change, and not promoting nuclear power, can’t be taken seriously.

Nuclear power is the only stand-alone power generation source that does not emit carbon dioxide gas during the generation process. And, unlike chaotically intermittent wind and solar, it’s available 24 x 365.

That the world’s third largest uranium exporter has never had a nuclear power plant (and banned them) astonishes all and sundry.

Australia also holds the world’s largest uranium reserves.

And yet, in 1998 its Federal government passed amendments to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act and enacted the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act, specifically prohibiting nuclear fuel fabrication, power, enrichment or reprocessing facilities.

Uranium extracted from BHP’s Olympic Dam mine in South Australia is clearly good enough for the French, South Koreans, Americans, Canadians, Japanese and Chinese, being just a few of the 30 countries…

Sanders and Me and not so Democratic Socialism

Sen. Sanders got a huge pass this primary season. Captivated by the deep dishonesty of one probable nominee and the crude ignorance of the other (not to mention his plain crudeness), the media, and informal commentators like myself, have not given the Democratic candidate and his program the attention they deserve. Also, in the current primary contest, it’s difficult not to like the guy. I have said several times that he inspires in me a kind of twisted affection. Plus, he has real pluck. But, let’s face it: He is probably done, or done for.

Sen. Sanders has gone very far into the primary while maintaining perfect dignity in his demeanor. He has seldom stooped to personal insults even when he was being severely tried by a Ms Clinton who seems to consider the man’s very candidacy a grave offense, an offense…

Low tide in Venice
This so-called man-made climate change thing must be a versatile beast, if it exists outside of myths. Wednesday’s rare super blue blood moon gets some of the blame here, but recent low rainfall also played a part.

Although the water levels in the city’s famous canals rise and fall with the tide, exceptionally low tides have left canals bare, reports Sky News.

Two months ago the high tide in Venice peaked at 187cm (6.14ft), leaving around 70% of the lagoon city centre under salt water.

CONGRATULATION’s Jay Weatherill !

YOUR mad global warming policies and ruinously juvenile obsession with green power have rewarded South Australia with the World’s most expensive power prices, helping to destroy your economy and hurt the poor.

Bravo.

German minister: we’ll burn coal till the 2040s

AFTER spending upwards of a trillion Euros of taxpayers money on the disastrous Energiewende program, all but destroying Germany’s industrial heartland and causing widespread energy poverty to consumers and businesses alike, ideologically green-agressive Germany is giving up on its mad rush into unreliable ‘energy’ – wind and solar – undergoing the biggest coal-fired power expansion in her history…

Following the cancellation of 758 wind projects in Ontario, its government has further delighted locals with the decision to revoke approval for the (almost complete) Nations Rise project, at North Stormont, near Ottawa.

This time the decision announced by Jeff Yurek, Ontario’s Minister of Environment, Conservation and Parks, was not one based purely on the flawed economics of the project, as in the other 758 cases.

This time, the government pulled the plug in order to prevent the inevitable annihilation of Hoary, Big and Little Brown bats; the Little Brown bat is identified as one of Ontario’s ‘Species at Risk’.

We’ll hand over to – an obviously delighted – Sherri Lange.

A GREAT DAY FOR BATS WORLD WIDE

This is a completely brilliant move. The developers can never argue about the efficacy and ESSENTIAL power of saving nature’s quiet little eco warriors, Bats. They are in serious decline world wide.

Reader Dom sent me a Bertrand Russell quote from what appears to be a very short essay, “Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?” (1947)

As a philosopher, if I were speaking to a purely philosophic audience I should say that I ought to describe myself as an Agnostic, because I do not think that there is a conclusive argument by which one prove that there is not a God. On the other hand, if I am to convey the right impression to the ordinary man in the street I think that I ought to say that I am an Atheist, because, when I say that I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods.

None of us would seriously consider the possibility that all the gods of Homer really exist, and yet…