... and with only 40 days left for saving the world!

The BBC has maintained a united Global Warming front, in all its news stories, until recently, but the cracks are beginning to show. It started with its scientific correspondent, Paul Hudson, on 9 October 2009 saying What happened to global warming?

"This headline may come as a bit of a surprise, so too might that fact that the warmest year recorded globally was not in 2008 or 2007, but in 1998. But it is true. For the last 11 years we have not observed any increase in global temperatures. And our climate models did not forecast it, even though man-made carbon dioxide, the gas thought to be responsible for warming our planet, has continued to rise."

David Birkinshaw and Matthew Neale were enjoying a stag weekend in Riga, when they found themselves accused of assaulting a policeman. There is no doubt that a scuffle of some kind took place, and a Latvian policeman claimed to have been hurt, although his injuries were described as "minor". It was never clear that the two Derby men had any part at all in the fracas.

Initially they came home to Derby, where David Birkinshaw was planning to marry his long-time fiancée, and mother of his child, Rachel Gee. But both men were sent back to Latvia under the European Arrest Warrant, where they spent ten weeks in a Stalin-era prison described by Latvia's own President as "not fit for animals". This was a time of appalling uncertainty. For a long time they had no details of charges, no assurance of a trial date, no assurance that adequate translation would be provided - and the looming possibility that they might be found guilty, and imprisoned in dreadful conditions for a lengthy period.

[Photo. Andrew Symeou]

Ann Winterton, MP, won the ballot to ask the first question in the first Prime Minister's Question Time in the new session of Parliament, on Wednesday (Oct 14th). She asked the most important question of the day so I listened to the BBC's "Today in Parliament" to hear it, but it was not mentioned, but the, The European Union rarely is.

I wonder how many people really understand the significance of the question that she asked. It seemed, from his answer, that Gordon Brown, did not.

Yet one more basic freedom is threatened by our government but not without protest. Seymane's case¹ established the basic right that an englishman's house is his castle but, in its usual way, this government is attempting to slide a change to this basic freedom. This time for those who decide to educate their children at home. Home Educators today; another small group tomorrow, you the next day and thus this government removes our basic freedoms little cut by little cut, and hardly anyone notices.

1"the house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence as for his repose"

is a famous quote from Semayne's Case (1604), where the principle of "knock and announce" was established. It lead to the 4th amendment to the US Bill of Rights.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

The outcome of Semayne's case was to show that the King had limited authority to enter his subject's "castle", but recognised that, when a warrant was obtained, government agents could conduct searches and seizures. Following the case, a number of general warrants were issued until John Entick's house was forcibly entered by the King's agent. In Entick vs Carrington (1765) it was shown that the warrant lacked probable cause to justify the search. This case established the principle that the crown is limited in intruding on private property by Common law.

Deep in the BBC's web pages is a little report that says "What happened to global warming?" By Paul Hudson, Climate correspondent, BBC News, Friday, 9 October 2009 16:22 UK. He reports:

What is really interesting at the moment is what is happening to our oceans. They are the Earth's great heat stores. According to research conducted by Professor Don Easterbrook from Western Washington University last November, the oceans and global temperatures are correlated. The oceans, he says, have a cycle in which they warm and cool cyclically. The most important one is the Pacific decadal oscillation (PDO).

 

For much of the 1980s and 1990s, it was in a positive cycle, that means warmer than average. And observations have revealed that global temperatures were warm too. But in the last few years it has been losing its warmth and has recently started to cool down. These cycles in the past have lasted for nearly 30 years.