Utopia, you are standing in it!

Recent debates about the health of the UK political system have raised questions about the core principles underlying constitutional democracy. Meg Russell, Alan Renwick and Lisa James set out some of these principles, and argue that MPs have a particular responsibility for upholding them.

Recent years have seen much discussion of the health of UK democracy, and some concerns about the risk of ‘democratic backsliding’. But this raises the question ‘backsliding from what’?

Widely shared assumptions exist about the principles which underlie constitutional (or ‘liberal’) democracies – the features that distinguish them from autocracies and so-called ‘illiberal democracies’. Although the UK famously lacks a codified constitution, such values are deeply embedded in its constitutional traditions and arrangements.

This briefing identifies and explains five such core principles:

1. Institutional checks and balances
2. Representative government, and free and fair elections
3. Rule of law
4. Fundamental rights
5. Integrity and standards

Reason and logic are in the fight of their lives; ideologues continue to push chaotically intermittent wind and solar, determined to deprive us of the reliable and affordable power that dragged us towards the unparalleled peace and prosperity we currently take for granted.

Net-zero carbon oxide gas emissions targets are only the latest assault launched by anti-human/anti-progress zealots. The net-zero meme, as Walter Stark explains, is merely an extension of the grand wind and solar transition mantra, and attended with the same delusional thinking.

Congratulations Australia. You’re already at Net Zero
Quadrant
Walter Stark
28 September 2022

Achievement of Net Zero in Australia is a no-brainer. Australia is, has been, and continues to be, a net greenhouse gas sink (GHG) with natural sequestration which exceeds domestic emissions. To achieve net zero all that is needed is to do nothing and permit any increases to occur until, at some distant future…

Parliament’s role in the Brexit process has been the subject of widespread controversy among politicians, commentators, and experts. This makes it important to understand exactly what kind of influence parliament wielded in that period. Tom Fleming and Lisa James shed new light on this question by summarising their recent article, Parliamentary Influence on Brexit Legislation, 2017-2019, as published in ‘Parliamentary Affairs’.

Parliament’s role in the Brexit process was – and remains – highly controversial. But despite this controversy, there is widespread agreement that parliament was unusually influential during this period, and particularly during the hung parliament that lasted from 2017 to 2019.

This verdict is largely based on parliament’s high-profile impact on the Brexit negotiations, where MPs famously torpedoed Theresa May’s exit deal, and delayed the UK’s eventual departure from the EU on multiple occasions. But parliament also considered a raft of important Brexit-related legislation, which…

Image credit: livescience.com
Maybe a climate model with no ‘ECS’ factor could do better? But anything that smacks of natural variation inevitably faces resistance from climate alarm promoters.
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A major survey into the accuracy of climate models has found that almost all the past temperature forecasts between 1980-2021 were excessive compared with accurate satellite measurements, says the Daily Sceptic.

The findings were recently published by Professor Nicola Scafetta, a physicist from the University of Naples. He attributes the inaccuracies to a limited understanding of Equilibrium Climate Sensitivity (ECS), the number of degrees centigrade the Earth’s temperature will rise with a doubling of carbon dioxide.

Scientists have spent decades trying to find an accurate ECS number, to no avail.

Stardate: 4768.3 (2268)
Original Air Date: February 9, 1968
Writer: John T. Dugan (credited as “John Kingsbridge”)
Director: Ralph Senensky

“Risk is our business. That is what this starship is all about.”

Mr. Sulu returns! The Enterprise is traveling through deep space, hundreds of lightyears past where any Earthship has explored before. They are tracking a signal from a seemingly lifeless planet –a Class M planet– a place which has been dead for a half million years after its atmosphere was mysteriously ripped away. As the Enterprise approaches, a disembodied voice named Sargon (voiced by James Doohan) suddenly booms throughout the ship: “all your questions will be answered.” Since exploration and contact with alien civilizations is the Enterprise’s primary mission, Kirk decides to risk engaging with the voice. As the ship’s sensors reach outward, planetary coordinates are transferred and Sulu is left at the helm.