Murdoch: Ouf! Is this meltdown?

[ahinton]

Someone else we shouldn't allow to control things in the uk

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/keep-your-hair-on-trump-blasts-scotland-over-turbine-project-7679177.html

(maybe this is for the other thread ?)

but :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Whichever thread it may be for, it's not quite so straightforward as it might seem. Yes, of course DT's statements are for the most part as arrogant as they are risible, but let's also remember that no one raised successful planning objections to his golf course in the first place and that, accordingly, he has as much right in principle to challenge the proposed wind farm development as had anyone potentially or actually affectged by it to have challenged his golf course application.

Far more importantly, however, most wind farms are an utter waste of an awful lot of money (and they're inevitably unsightly into the non-bargain). I'm all for the widespread development of sustainable energy resources and the concomitant reduction in the extraction, refining, distribution and use of fossil fuels, but there are very few areas where wind farms make a profit, which is what they'll have to do if they're to take the place of all or part of those more traditional forms of power generation; they require a good deal more in maintenance costs than do solar farms which, whilst also not being the most attractive sights, are a great deal less ugly than wind farms. How often have we driven past existing wind farms only to find that at least half of the turbines are not even functioning? The tale that i like the most about wind turbines is the one where one collapsed onto a parked car - by reason of having been blown down...

As to the principles under which anyone in governmental power might allow or disallow others to control things in UK, I note that one of the respondents to this article protests that some people (such as the Trumps, Murdochs et al of this demi-monde) seem to think that they're bigger than nations; whilst this may be a debatable assertion, it remains worth bearing in mind that those nations do not for the most part have easy automatic procedures in place to preclude such a risk and that, in order that they do, there would need first to be watertight international agreement between all of them and, given the immense and irresoluble contrasts between nations' vested interests, that's about as unlilkely as Philip Glass writing a work to "trump" the Gurrelieder...

[ahinton]

The Murdoch-Salmond links have become a lot clearer too recently - I read a good piece but can't find it just at the mo - will post it when I do :ok:

That may be for another thread as well (or possibly even two of them - you won't need me to remind you of which!), but do please post what you find once you've found it, wherever you may decide to do so.

Whatever it may be, however, why should anyone be surprised? Nobbling, surveillance and other influencing actions and information gathering procedures of all moral bases and none are surely endemic throughout the media and its relationships with other authorities at all levels, not just at the top end with global organisations such as Newscorp; why should I assume that the Hereford Times may be any more immune to such things than The Sun (albeit on a far smaller scale)?

Whilst on the subject of Hereford, incidentally, there is a very fine hostelry not far to the south east of that city which, although run by a Spanish family, nevertheless includes on its menu beer battered cod (or haddock) and chips in a manner and with the kind of presentation that successfully elevates it to something approaching a gastronomic experience, thus demonstrating that the chef (a Welshman) possesses among his talents a sense of humour - or at least so I thought until noting that, in the small wire basket in which this is served, the piece of fish is laid on a mockup of a part of a page of The Times, which discovery led me to ask a waiter what he thought Lord Leveson might make of this; if a Welsh chef is - er - grilled by the noble Lord at some future point in his inquiry, it'll probably be him, although I'd not wish to think that I'd have had any part in his being called to do so...

[John Skelton]

"A portrait of Satan" http://www.picgifs.com/smileys/smile...vil-790225.gif

What a ridiculous load of hyperbole. The amount of sheer tosh written by the rabid anti-Murdoch brigade is simply laughable.

Interviewer: Hello Mr Murdoch, what are you doing?

Rupert: Mr Murdoch? Oh, that's me! I'd temporarily forgotten. I'm washing socks for the orphans.

Interviewer: Washing socks for the orphans?

Rupert: Yes. I would have bought them new socks, but I've given most of my money away to give the poor children a lovely holiday by the sea.

Interviewer: That's not how people usually think of you, Mr Murdoch. Washing orphans' socks, giving poor children a lovely holiday by the sea. They usually think of you as a rapacious, egomaniac, power crazy monster!

Rupert: Do they? That's so upsetting.

Interviewer: You mean you've never been involved in hostile takeovers? Never brutally sacked people who stood up to you? Never got your newspapers to break politicians you dislike, or lobbied politicians under thinly veiled threats of doing the same to them?

Rupert: I don't remember any of that!! Oh look - there are some cute little rabbits! Let's feed them from this lovely bag of carrots.

[ahinton]

Interviewer: Hello Mr Murdoch, what are you doing?

Rupert: Mr Murdoch? Oh, that's me! I'd temporarily forgotten. I'm washing socks for the orphans.

Interviewer: Washing socks for the orphans?

Rupert: Yes. I would have bought them new socks, but I've given most of my money away to give the poor children a lovely holiday by the sea.

Interviewer: That's not how people usually think of you, Mr Murdoch. Washing orphans' socks, giving poor children a lovely holiday by the sea. They usually think of you as a rapacious, egomaniac, power crazy monster!

Rupert: Do they? That's so upsetting.

Interviewer: You mean you've never been involved in hostile takeovers? Never brutally sacked people who stood up to you? Never got your newspapers to break politicians you dislike, or lobbied politicians under thinly veiled threats of doing the same to them?

Rupert: I don't remember any of that!! Oh look - there are some cute little rabbits! Let's feed them from this lovely bag of carrots.

It's those carrots where he gives it away, innit? After all, no carrots without sticks, surely?...

That said, they don't grow sufficient carrots in Oz to feed to more than the tiniest percentage of that nation's rabbits, so they'd better set about importing a load of them from Mr Salmond's (and my) Scotland...

[amateur51]

Whichever thread it may be for, it's not quite so straightforward as it might seem. Yes, of course DT's statements are for the most part as arrogant as they are risible, but let's also remember that no one raised successful planning objections to his golf course in the first place and that, accordingly, he has as much right in principle to challenge the proposed wind farm development as had anyone potentially or actually affectged by it to have challenged his golf course application.

Far more importantly, however, most wind farms are an utter waste of an awful lot of money (and they're inevitably unsightly into the non-bargain).

Golf courses are of course not entirely carbon-neutral (all those mowers & extra sprinklers) and I don't recall aesthetics being an issue when coal mines were in fashion - great winding gear, slurry tips, wagons & trains to & fro, and ... oh of course, that only blighted the view of the miners and sundry other working-class folk :whistle:

[amateur51]

The Murdoch-Salmond links have become a lot clearer too recently - I read a good piece but can't find it just at the mo - will post it when I do :ok:

This isn't it but will do ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/scotland-blog/2012/feb/21/rupert-murdoch-scottish-independence-sun?INTCMP=SRCH

:smiley:

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Infamy Infamy Infamy Questions Questions etc ....

when these two are asking the same kinds of BIG QUESTIONS and which were put by m'learned friend to Rupert yesterday and contemptuously dismissed by him 'i do not need to do that sort of thing' ..... it seems to me that there are some serious perils for Dave C in the inquiry he set up

i also had not realised just how much of a drama queen Rupert is ... the scale of his denial of just how much wrongdoing and corruption has gone on is spectacular ... i think Jay just really nailed him on corporate governance btw ... not sure he understood how he was at risk so m'lud gave him a break ....

and he took a big swipe at P Dacre of the Rag and guess what is all over the top end of the rag's web site now ..... stories and stories about Rupert, Dave and the jinks they all had in the stables ...

[Mr Pee]

i think Jay just really nailed him on corporate governance btw ... not sure he understood how he was at risk so m'lud gave him a break ....

Jay? Is that the name of the smarmy git asking the questions?

I've had better things to do with my life up to now than watch this pantomime 24/7, but I have had a look this morning. I think Murdoch is handling himself very well. Of course most people, especially here, have long since made their minds up. which renders the whole thing rather pointless.

[amateur51]

when these two are asking the same kinds of BIG QUESTIONS and which were put by m'learned friend to Rupert yesterday and contemptuously dismissed by him 'i do not need to do that sort of thing' ..... it seems to me that there are some serious perils for Dave C in the inquiry he set up

i also had not realised just how much of a drama queen Rupert is ... the scale of his denial of just how much wrongdoing and corruption has gone on is spectacular ... i think Jay just really nailed him on corporate governance btw ... not sure he understood how he was at risk so m'lud gave him a break ....

and he took a big swipe at P Dacre of the Rag and guess what is all over the top end of the rag's web site now ..... stories and stories about Rupert, Dave and the jinks they all had in the stables ...

We're fortunate to have two fine journalists addressing these questions Calum, I agree.

[ahinton]

Golf courses are of course not entirely carbon-neutral

Indeed, but then very few things are - even the manufacture and ultimate disposal of wind turbines, solar panels and the rest involve processes that are not entirely carbon-neutral; that fact did nothing to obstruct Trump's golf course planning application and its granting, though, did it?

I don't recall aesthetics being an issue when coal mines were in fashion - great winding gear, slurry tips, wagons & trains to & fro, and ... oh of course, that only blighted the view of the miners and sundry other working-class folk :whistle:

Indeed not - but then environmental considerations of the kind with which we concern ourselves today not least those burgeoning aspirations to achieve carbon neutrality wherever possible and promote the widespread development and use of sustainnable alternative energy sources - were not "issues" in those dark days, either.

[amateur51]

Jay? Is that the name of the smarmy git asking the questions?

I've had better things to do with my life up to now than watch this pantomime 24/7, but I have had a look this morning. I think Murdoch is handling himself very well. Of course, nobody will believe a word he says, which renders the whole thing rather pointless.

Are you auditioning for the role of Alf Garnett of FoR3, Mr Pee? :yikes:

Cos you can stop now :smiley:

The part is yours :biggrin:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWKy4RHf5tQ Not the content .... the style :winkeye:

[amateur51]

Indeed, but then very few things are - even the manufacture and ultimate disposal of wind turbines, solar panels and the rest involve processes that are not entirely carbon-neutral; that fact did nothing to obstruct Trump's golf course planning application and its granting, though, did it?


Indeed not - but then environmental considerations of the kind with which we concern ourselves today not least those burgeoning aspirations to achieve carbon neutrality wherever possible and promote the widespread development and use of sustainnable alternative energy sources - were not "issues" in those dark days, either.

Well I like wind turbines. :ok:

Much nicer than pylons.:smiley:

Sort of quixotic :winkeye:

[Mr Pee]

Well I like wind turbines. :ok:

Of course you do.....:erm:

And thanks for the Alf Garnett clip. The best Prime Minister we never had.:winkeye:

[amateur51]

Indeed not - but then environmental considerations of the kind with which we concern ourselves today not least those burgeoning aspirations to achieve carbon neutrality wherever possible and promote the widespread development and use of sustainnable alternative energy sources - were not "issues" in those dark days, either.

Really? :erm:

Someone did surveys, quantitative and qualitative, of people living in pit villages that showed that, did they? :whistle:

Ah you mean they were issues that were not addressed - I see now :winkeye:

[ahinton]

Well I like wind turbines. :ok:

Much nicer than pylons.:smiley:

Sort of quixotic :winkeye:

Well, that's your prerogative, of course, but I take leave to doubt that it is a majority view. I don't like electricity pylons either - another remnant of the dark ages; for "quix...", read "idi..." as far as i'm concerned.