Odd that she did not mention carbon emissions from 30,000 prospective attendees, which the Global Warming Policy Forum did in May, strongly suggesting that the conference take place virtually. Guido Fawkes said that having done so would have saved British taxpayers £200m.
We are working on the basis of COP26 being held in person this November, while closely monitoring the covid situation.
The summit team is working closely with all partners and exploring what different scenarios might mean for COP26 and how we plan for that, whilst putting the health of the participants and the local community first.
We are not looking to postpone the summit.
During COP26, Greta led a rally in central Glasgow, attracting hundreds of fellow admirers in the streets.
Mixed messages from No. 10’s COP26 spokeswoman
On April 20, No. 10 decided to scrap the plan for American-style press conferences which Downing Street’s spokeswoman Allegra Stratton was supposed to lead. Stratton became the Government’s COP26 spokeswoman instead.
What a mistake that was.
On July 27, she told Britons not to rinse their plates before putting them in the dishwasher. Good news for plumbers, then:
Not sure about anyone else but my dishwasher gets blocked and breaks down if I dont rinse the plates first 🤷♂️
In an unexpected turn of events, Boris Johnson’s COP26 spokesperson Allegra Stratton told The Independentthat people should “join the Green Party” if they want to tackle climate change. When asked why organisations were critical of her advice to consider not “rinsing plates“ before putting them in the dishwasher, Allegra responded by saying:
“When people say to me, ‘What can they do?’, they can do many things, they can join Greenpeace, they can join the Green Party, they can join the Tory Party.”
A highly quotable if somewhat unusual endorsement…
I have a diesel Golf. It’s third hand and I’ve had it for 8 years. I don’t drive it very much because I live in London, and it wouldn’t be right. I cycle, I’ve hurt my leg at the moment, but usually we cycle or get on the bus or walk most places. The car we use to go to granny’s and grandad’s who are mostly 200, 250 miles away. I should be moving to another car, before I hurt my leg I was thinking about getting another car…My son would really like me to buy an electric car. I think it is the idea that right now, if I had one, any of those journeys to my dad in South Scotland, my mum in Gloucestershire, my in-laws in the Lake District and my Gran in North Wales, they’re all journeys, that I think would be at least one quite long stop to charge. And my kids are seven and four and I don’t fancy it just yet. That’s not to say that very soon, that technology, the charging points, we’re already seeing an increase in numbers, we’re seeing the cost come down, and we are seeing the range go up. So the direction of travel is great, and is swift. So I am optimistic that at some point, like so many families around the country, I’ll go for it. But right now, I have hurt my leg and I’ve been told I can’t drive ...You know, sometimes when you’ve got a four year old in the car, they’re asleep, and you just want to keep going to get there, because you know, if they wake up, you know, they’ll want the loo, they’ll want food, they might be feeling carsick and so on. So you want to be in control of that journey ... And included in that might be that the stop times for recharging improve so much that it’s half an hour.
Stratton gave all the best reasons for not buying an electric car.
Commenting on Stratton’s quote, Emily Carver, Media Manager at the Institute of Economic Affairs, pointed out:
Of course, when polled, the majority of the public support addressing climate change. Who wouldn’t want a greener, more sustainable planet? However, as is the case with so many policies, it is far easier to support a rosy abstract goal than it is to face its real-life consequences.
Furthermore, very few in the media mention the African slave labour involved in mining cobalt for car batteries in general:
The same cobalt that is used in all cars microprocessors and batteries.
Stratton became the first official White House-style press secretary for the prime minister last year. She is a former journalist who had worked with establishment outlets The Guardian, the BBC, and ITV. Despite spending £2.6 million on furnishing a press room, the government scrapped the plans in April, moving Stratton to the role of the Cop26 spokeswoman, with the conference taking place in November of this year.
The Timesclaimed in May that Johnson appointed the former journalist at the insistence of his then-fiancée Carrie Symonds, herself a keen environmentalist.
The newspaper of record alleged the hiring took place despite the interview panel recommending against it, with leaked remarks calling Stratton a “risky appointment” and voters allegedly preferring Ellie Price, the panel’s first-choice candidate.
“The PM said it would make his life too difficult. Carrie won’t accept it if it’s anyone else. He said, ‘I’ve promised this to her’,” a Whitehall source told The Times, with a second source saying: “Boris said Carrie would go bananas if she didn’t get her way.”
In 2020, Stratton worked for Chancellor Rishi Sunak. In January 2021, TCW told us that Stratton is married to The Times‘s James Forsyth, who also works for The Spectator:
It’s time for the journalist James Forsyth – who also writes a column in the Times – to reveal the truth about Sunak’s plans. Forsyth and Sunak are close friends. They attended Winchester College together in the 1990s. Sunak was best man at Forsyth’s wedding and they are godparents to each other’s children. In April 2020, Sunak hired Forsyth’s wife, Allegra Stratton, to be his media chief (though it’s not clear if this job was ever advertised and I don’t remember any of the above being declared publicly). Since then she has moved on to be No 10 press secretary.
The conference, the hypocrisy
Guido Fawkes looked through Government contracts for COP26 to see what taxpayers’ money was financing.
The filming costs were exhorbitant:
The government has splashed a whopping £36,083,135.81 on a production services contract with Identity Holdings Limited which includes a supply of production and media services.
Glasgow teemed with prostitutes for the first two weeks of November. So much for women’s rights and the Left’s virtue signalling moral compass.
The 25,000 delegates who have flooded into Glasgow have brought protestors by the thousands and, according to Guido sources, untold sex workers from around the world who are advertising their services online. In the interests of research for this story Guido has been doing research on various “adult work” websites which filter by city. According to one of the website operators, business has really hotted up, with the number of hookers advertising their services tripling from the normal three hundred or so in the city, to upwards of a thousand.
Former Labour MP David Miliband told BBC’s Newsnight that the cost of net zero would be at least £100t of ordinary people’s money:
David Miliband & Co on #Newsnight want to spend $100 Trillion on climate change. ONE HUNDRED TRiLLION. Are they on crack in Glasgow?
For whatever reason, a Green councillor from Brighton not only attended the conference, but flew to get there:
The question has to be asked why a local council leader feels the need to attend COP instead of concentrating on local matters that need clearing up. Like the bin issue for instance
On November 9, Guido wrote (emphases in the original, the one in purple mine):
Why it is really necessary for a local council leader to attend a UN conference Guido doesn’t know given they have absolutely no locus or input into the COP process. To make matters worse Brighton’s Green council leader has been caught with his fly open and forced to apologise after jetting to COP26 in Glasgow.Just days after Caroline Lucas moaned Rishi’s Budget was a joke because of its tax cuts on domestic flights…
Councillor Phelim Mac Cafferty took a plane from London to Glasgow, a 460-mile journey after which he made a speech at a protest march led by Greta Thunberg on the importance of cutting carbon emissions. He also chair’s Brighton and Hove council’s carbon neutral working group.According to the LNER website, the train journey from Brighton to Glasgow would have created 26.68kg of CO2 – Cafferty’s plane journey created 169.94kg…
Having been found out, the councillor issued a grovelling apology to a Brighton newspaper, The Argus.
In sharp contrast, former Scottish Conservative MP Ruth Davidson spotted the Royal Train at Carlisle station:
Didn't expect this while waiting on the platform at Carlisle – the Royal train 'Queen's Messenger' pulls up for a change of driver. pic.twitter.com/hUgYwNFG3o
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s security minister Tô Lâm left Glasgow to journey to London for an eye-wateringly expensive gold leafed tomahawk steak at the newly opened Salt Bae Knightsbridge restaurant.
Guido has the video …
… and a post about the Communist enjoying a taste of capitalism:
…And where had he just come from prior to his luxury dining experience? A flower-laying exercise at Karl Marx’s grave…
This absurd spectacle should surely call into question the millions the UK’s given to the corrupt, communist state. Since 2001, £481 million of UK taxpayers’ cash has been given in aid to Vietnam, and they are set to get another £7 million bung in 2021/22.Based on the video, Guido calculates the three steaks alone cost the table £2,550…
His colleagues back home are clearly displeased. The #SaltBae tag on Facebook was blocked in Vietnam to prevent people seeing the video – something the social media giant is now investigating.Presumably if he is sacked for his typically corrupt communist antics, he can expect a golden handshake and a gold-plated pension…
One supposes he flew there and back.
Green MP Caroline Lucas has been a stickler for wearing masks in the coronavirus era, but look what she did at COP26. She dropped her mask:
The Daily Mail reported that Joe Biden had an emission problem of his own which left the Duchess of Cornwall highly amused. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is on the left, with Camilla on the right:
Biden’s emission problem at #COP26 – Camilla 'hasn't stopped talking about' hearing President 'break wind' https://t.co/owvOyKazlX
More than halfway through the conference it became clear that Glasgow’s hospitality sector was not reaping the post-coronavirus benefits that COP26 promoters promised.
While hotels across Glasgow are fully booked to accommodate the thousands of delegates, the hospitality trade is understood not to have seen any uplift in trading since the event began on October 31.
There are even suggestions the event has led to a reduction in trade for some operators. Footfall in the city centre is said to have been affected as people try to avoid the demonstrations.
There is also thought to be a number of delegations which have stayed outside of the city, with Edinburgh hotels among those which are busy.
Oli Norman, whose Ashton Properties owns venues such as Brel and Sloans, said he had heard of some publicans and restaurant owners who have seen their trading fall by up to 50 per cent, and added: “It should have signified a resurgence in the local economy but if anything it has been a damp squib.”
Dan Hodges from the Mail interviewed self-employed Glaswegians in Easterhouse, a poor district away from the city centre:
Thomas is disillusioned with COP26. ‘I’ve missed my chance,’ the Glaswegian barber tells me. ‘My friend rented his flat at two grand a week. He’s making £6,000 and using the money to jet off for a holiday.’
I’m in Easterhouse, a few miles from where the global elite are gathering to save the world from itself. But few of them have ventured out to what was once the most deprived housing estate in Scotland. ‘I’m not sure why,’ Angus, the local butcher, laughs. ‘Perhaps Joe Biden got lost on the M8.’
What does he think about calls for us all to go vegan to protect the planet? ‘Well, I’m a butcher,’ he replies. ‘And my dad was a butcher and my grandad was a butcher. I grew up on pig’s feet soup. So I think people round here are still going to want to eat meat.’
Angus’s views could be ascribed to self-interest. The same can’t be said for local cabbie Andy. He’s made a small fortune shuttling delegates between Glasgow and Edinburgh at £120 a time. ‘Sorry, but the whole thing is a pile of crap,’ he tells me. ‘They’ve been driving round in big convoys telling everyone else to get the bus.
‘It all feels like a millionaire’s party.’
While a Scottish government minister caught coronavirus at COP26 …
Scotland's Just Transition and Employment minister has tested positive for Covid. He was at #cop26 on Monday. Now he's one of the 0.1% of attendees who've tested positive for the virus@LBC@LBCNewshttps://t.co/uln48VTIgL
… First Minister Nicola Sturgeon did her best to market at least one Scottish product, Irn Bru, a popular soft drink. She gave some to Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez:
One senior Scot noted Sturgeon’s contradictory position on mask wearing:
As was said on radio scotland earlier, the messaging is very unclear. If the powers that be insist on masks inside, the powers that be should be masked, inside. On the other hand if we are now following England and un-masking, please tell us. https://t.co/zu2rjEfOCW
Sturgeon had no policy mandate at COP26. She was invited only as Scotland’s political leader. It was a courtesy.
Still, as such, one can understand why she wanted selfies with world leaders. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her, even though she denied it:
Not surprisingly, much socialism was on display at COP26.
Harry Wilkinson discussed it with Tom Harwood of GB News on the last official day, November 12. This was an excellent interview:
'It will be the poorest people in different countries paying the cost of climate change policies'
Head of Policy at the Net Zero scrutiny group Harry Wilkinson reveals whether he thinks the COP26 climate summit has been a success. pic.twitter.com/ObgMWq2ttG
'I am seeing a very socialist agenda here that's focused on reducing people's consumption… that's really disturbing'
Head of Policy at the Net Zero Scrutiny Group @HarryWilkinsonn calls for new technological developments, warning 'we can't just subsidise the way to net zero'. pic.twitter.com/jMjabh1e5S
China and the United States signed a bilateral deal thought to be a big deal. We’ll see. That said, India is the second greatest polluter after China:
'Things are reaching a crunch point'
Political Correspondent Tom Harwood reports on the final day of the COP26 summit, highlighting the importance of the 'seismic' bi-lateral deal between 'the world's two largest polluters' America and China. pic.twitter.com/meNXnH757t
Nicola Sturgeon wants a ban on nuclear fuel in Scotland, but if she does ban it too soon, the nation will not have the energy supply it needs:
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon refuses to answer GB News Political Correspondent Tom Harwood when questioned on whether she was considering lifting the ban on new nuclear power pic.twitter.com/lllPgdYbMf
In the end, coal would be phased down rather than phased out. This is because too many developing countries need it to supply energy to their citizens.
Before he banged down the gavel on the pact, the tearful Sharma told delegates: “I apologise for the way this process has unfolded. I am deeply sorry.” The representatives of 197 countries at the summit responded with a standing ovation …
Sharma said the summit had kept “1.5 alive” but added “its pulse is weak” and described it as “a fragile win”.
Nonetheless, he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr that the agreement is a ‘historic achievement’:
Even Angela Rayner, the Labour MP who recently referred to ‘Tory scum’, praised Sharma for a ‘tremendous job’:
Sharma received many more compliments in Parliament early this week.
Those interested in combating climate change — largely impossible, in my opinion — should know that COP26 picked up from the Paris Agreement to flesh it out with specifics and COP27, to be held in Egypt in 2022, is thought to go even further with better pledges from participating nations.
On Saturday, January 6, 2018, Newsbusters posted an article about a BBC interview with Michael Wolff, author of Fire and Fury, which is about President Donald Trump.
Incidentally, the book is currently available for free online. As such availability likely violates copyright law, I have not posted the link.
In an interview with BBC Radio on Saturday, Michael Wolff, the author of the dubiously sourced gossip book targeting President Trump, boasted to host Nick Robinson that “the story” that he told, “will finally end…this presidency” once and for all …
“Now, all of this is fascinating, it’s an insight, it’s gossip some of it, it may not be enough to stop him from being president. Whereas, the allegations about Russia may be,” Robinson prefaced. “Do you believe that anything in the book will actually change the chances of the allegations of collusion with Russia being found to be true and therefore leading to the impeachment of the President?”
Wolff said:
You know, I think one of the interesting effects of the book so far is a very clear emperor-has-no-clothes effect. That, the story that I have told seems to present this presidency in such a way that it says he can’t do his job. The emperor has no clothes. Suddenly everywhere people are going: ‘Oh my God, it’s true, he has no clothes.’ That’s the background to the perception and the understanding that will finally end this – that will end this presidency.
As retired courtroom lawyer Lionel says, such talk is potentially dangerous:
If you commit acts that you believe will bring down a president and those acts are based on a falsehood you are admitting your purpose was not reportage but sedition. That’s kind of serious.https://t.co/VbaYf287pf…-presidency
Incredibly, Wolff told Robinson that Trump hardly has any staff and that he will do little as president. Despite stellar economic results in 2017, Wolff said:
The economy is booming possibly because you’ll have someone who’s not capable of actually implementing any policies or regulation.
In a way, that makes no sense.
In another, such a statement implies that the economy does better with less government interference.
Trump’s insistence on rolling back Obama era regulations has helped the economy improve. Trump was also busy last year negotiating various trade initiatives, such as coal.
In June, the New York Post published an article on coal by Salena Zito, who does an excellent job of covering small town life in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
‘Don’t be so quick to dismiss Trump’s coal mining initiative’ is an eye-opener. For the first time in a decade, a new coal mine opened in Acosta, Pennsylvania. Trump sent his congratulations via video shown to local residents (emphases mine below):
The Acosta Deep Mine in Somerset County marks a dramatic upturn for the area. And while President Trump cannot claim that he brought the industry back here personally (this new mine was already being developed before the election), he is an effective cheerleader for folks who’ve been discounted by the political elite.
“We will begin by employing 70 to 100 miners and we hope to open a total of three new mines in the next 18 months — and that will mean additional hiring,” said George Dethlefsen, CEO of Corsa Coal, which owns the mine.
More than 400 people applied for the first wave of jobs that will pay from $50,000 to $100,000, Dethlefsen said.
In a region where the median household income is $29,050, and nearly 12 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the economic injection is huge.
It also creates a ripple effect: For every new job generated by the mine, even more jobs like waitresses, hotel workers, barbers or grocery workers are needed to support the community.
Absolutely.
Furthermore, the coal mined in Acosta is being used for steel production:
The coal from this mine is not going to be used for energy — instead, it will be used for the production of steel for the next 15 years. (According to the World Steel Association, coal is used to make 70 percent of the steel today.)
Every single one of us relies on steel in our daily lives. It’s found in our cars, bikes and public transportation. Those wind turbines so loved by environmentalists? Made of steel. The utensils we use to eat? Steel. Medical devices used to save lives? Steel.
Roads, bridges, appliances and even iPhones and computers all contain steel.
Exactly.
This is a great move.
And there is more good news on the coal front. In July, The Conservative Treehouse reported on the increase in American coal exports. This came as news to me:
U.S. EIA data shows a gain of 60.3% so far this year in exports of both steam coal (used to generate electricity) and coking coal (metallurgical coal used for steel manufacturing) as a direct consequence of President Trump’s common sense energy policy.
Interestingly, the largest destinations for the growth in American coal export are the U.K. (+175%) and a doubling of tonnage to both France (+100%), and Asia (+100%). High transport costs to ship coal to the EU are being offset by U.S. coal manufacturing efficiencies and improvements in mining productivity.
“Simply to know that coal no longer has to fight the government – that has to have some effect on investment decisions and in the outlook by companies, producers and utilities that use coal,” said Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association.
Shaylyn Hynes, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Energy Department, said: “These numbers clearly show that the Trump Administration’s policies are helping to revive an industry that was the target of costly and job killing overregulation from Washington for far too long.”
Coal could also be a major economic weapon used against North Korea, one of China’s principal coal suppliers.
Recall that China’s president Xi Jinping met with Trump at Mar a Lago on April 6 and 7, 2017. On April 11, Reuters reported:
Following repeated missile tests that drew international criticism, China banned all imports of North Korean coal on Feb. 26, cutting off the country’s most important export product.
To curb coal traffic between the two countries, China’s customs department issued an official order on April 7 telling trading companies to return their North Korean coal cargoes, said three trading sources with direct knowledge of the order …
The Trump administration has been pressuring China to do more to rein in North Korea, which sends the vast majority of its exports to its giant neighbor across the Yellow Sea …
North Korea is a significant supplier of coal to China, especially of the type used for steel making, known as coking coal.
To make up for the shortfall from North Korea, China has ramped up imports from the United States in an unexpected boon for U.S. President Donald Trump, who has declared he wants to revive his country’s struggling coal sector.
Eikon data shows no U.S. coking coal was exported to China between late 2014 and 2016, but shipments soared to over 400,000 tonnes by late February.
This trend was exacerbated after cyclone Debbie knocked out supplies from the world’s top coking coal region in Australia’s state of Queensland, forcing Chinese steel makers to buy even more U.S. cargoes.
I digressed from Wolff. However, he and his fellow ilk in the media deserve to have their collars felt by the authorities. What Wolff is doing with his book and what the media have been doing with fake news could be construed as advocating the overthrow of government, or, as Lionel tweeted, sedition.
Churchmouse Campanologist 