"The most dangerous man you've never heard of": Not my words but those of 'Dellors' writing in The Telegraph describing Lord Pillock Stern, a former civil servant who, prior to his laughable 'report' on the economic effects of climate change, had "never published before on the economics of energy, environment or climate". Not my words but those of Richard Tol, a professor of the economics of climate change who has just asked his name to be removed from the forthcoming IPCC agitprop report on account of its inaccuracy. Summing up his opinion of the Stern report he wrote, "Its academic value is zero." And yet the chumps who run the world, well, some of them anyway, have spent zillions of our money in vain attempts to to deal with the non-existent problems that Lord Stern forecast. Why does anyone pay the slightest heed to these dim-witted poltroons?
'Spring has sprung, the grass has riz ...': Which means - groan, groan - that next week I must get out and cut my bit of the churchyard grass. With all the rain and now the sunshine - and, no, I'm not c0mplaining - the grass is nearly as "high as an elephant's eye". Yet again, as I do every year, I bemoan the fact that I forgot that primary but unwritten rule you learn very fast in the army - never, ever, volunteer!
'Rasher of the Yard' - R.I.P: I have this book, you see, called rather wittily "Thinker, Failure, Soldier, Jailer"which is a summary of Telegraph obits over the years with just one person featured for every day of the year. In an idle moment I wondered who was today's entrant and it turned out to be Sir Ranulph Bacon, former deputy commissioner at Scotland Yard who died on the 30th March 1988. Known to intimates on both sides of the law as 'Rasher of the Yard' - natch! - he was very definitely 'old school', urging the public, as he did controversially, to 'have a go' when they saw a crime taking place. And as he told a crime conference, "A shotgun is part of the adult Englishman's equipment'. I wonder if he ever considered emigrating to Arkansas? I think he might have done very well there!
