Arthur's Seat

Bombay - a correspondent writes

Not sure if the Daily Telegraph's man (formerly) in India has it quite right in this piece. One of his commentators hits the nail more firmly on the head:

India "no longer safe for Westerners"? Well, neither are - to take some random examples - Glasgow Airport, Spanish commuter trains, beaches when a tsunami strikes, the home (90% of fatal accidents), the British motorway system...

This is not a "moment when the game changes" unless you want it to be. More precisely, it isn't these attacks that are going to add to the already crazed levels of irrational fear in the public mind. It's weak thinking, and the irresponsible tendency of the media to pander to weak thinking instead of setting a good example.

Take, for example, the response of the cricketers. Postponement of one-day internationals, possible cancellation of the Champions League competition. Why? These attacks have happened. The next attack might happen in any place on the globe, including the UK. Ignoring the attacks and doing their job might set a better example. But instead we get all the emotional justification stuff about them having families, wives and children and wanting to go home. Sorry to sound like an old colonel with a moustache and purple nose, but it's lily-livered, feeble, craven. I quite agree with JohnT's comment here. I've never been to India, but I still intend to, and if I was going this week, I would not be cancelling anything. I wouldn't allow testosterone-fuelled, intellectually one-eyed monotheists to stop me engaging with such a fascinating place and people. You can die crossing a road in London. You can die on your sofa. The point is: live life until you die.

As for Britons and Americans being "in the crosshairs of India's Islamist terror threat", we have over 100 dead this morning, and ONE of them is British. This is a crime against humanity, not against two nations.

In Texas they're giving away free energy

It's a known phenomenon in countries with high penetration of renewable energy that at periods of peak output the price of electricity can be driven through the floor.

This is an intereting analysis from west Texas where a lot of wind coming onto the system has produced negative pricing. I don't share the author's conclusions - but rather those of his colleague, the esteemed Dr Lynne Kiesling (at #11) who correctly identifies that one way to smooth out the negative prices is to build better interconnection so you can ship all that clean electricity to neighbouring markets where they have higher prices due to a lack of renewables.

Woolies to the Wall

Robert Peston gets it about right in his blog on the demise of Woolworths. I suspect bits of it will find a buyer - the news and magazine distribution business could be bought by someone like Menzies, who gave up their high street presence some time ago to diversify into distribution and airport services.

Still - seems like yesterday that I was despatched with £5 to Woolies in Dunfermline to do my Christmas shopping. Santa used to stand outside the shop intimidating parents into parting with 50p to have their children photographed with him. Child protection laws would prevent that kind of thing now - ah, the smell of nostalgia.

Back in our Seat

After a two year absence we are back; some changes in design, courtesy of Typepad, and further modifications to come. You may need to refresh your browser if you had this blog in your Favourites.

 Happy Reading, and comments, as ever, all welcome.

Not again

The news overnight from Bombay is awful. Two years ago this was one of the final posts on Arthur's Seat before we moved to the Select Society. Which led us to this post.

Greenies save the Economy

President-elect Barack Obama is developing a plan to create or preserve 2.5 million jobs over the next two years by spending billions of dollars to rebuild roads and bridges, modernize public schools, and construct wind farms and other alternative sources of energy.

Governments on both sides of the Atlantic are agreed that delivery of large scale infrastructure projects will help provide the economic stimulus required to drive western economies out of recession. Reference has been made, not just in the US, to the New Deal, and the Roosevelt Administration’s use of major projects to rebuild their economy after the Depression.

Commentators speculate that an incoming Obama team will want to deliver a couple of major projects – such as moving the US towards universal healthcare, and rebuilding much of the country’s creaking infrastructure. In the EU the message from governments is similar, though many are constrained by existing deficits as to their room for manoeuvre.

In the UK the Government trailed the announcement of an accelerated investment programme in advance of the Pre-Budget Statement. The additional commitment to extend the RO clearly shows that the UK Government views the renewables sector as one of the few bright lights in an otherwise gloomy economic environment.

Even before the severity of the economic downturn became apparent, it was clear that the growth in the clean tech sector, both in the EU and in the US, would offer the opportunity to create many thousands of new jobs. There are undoubted market opportunities now for developers with an appetite for growth, and access to resources.

In a further twist – and of benefit to the wind industry in Europe – the financial sector crisis in the US means that the PTC tax equity play is no longer so attractive, and has already led to a shift back towards development in the EU. An incoming Obama Administration may find the necessary Congressional majority to introduce another support scheme for renewables, but until that happens, Europe will retain a market lead in renewables.

In the UK, the government may have bet the farm on us pulling out of recession next year, and whatever one’s view on the likelihood of that scenario coming to pass, it is clear that continued growth in our sector will be one of the catalysts for that climb back from the brink. Don’t expect tabloid headlines on the lines of Greenies save the Economy, but perhaps a letter from the Chancellor to say “thank you” might be in order.

Simply scary

Even before yesterday's announcement by the Government that the National Debt would reach levels never before plumbed, it was clear that the UK's net indebtedness was shocking. A colleague has pointed me in the direction of this article from October. This graph is simply scary. Time to emigrate.

Or as the authors of the original post put it:

 In this sense, the UK is just like your friend that spends exactly what they make, or even beyond their means to try and impress his/her friends. This is worse than living month to month – it’s like living a month to two months behind! And now, the UK is accumulating new debt at a faster rate than the economy. If the UK were a private citizen, it might be time for him/her to sell off what they can and move to Panama, or declare some type of bankruptcy.

I am sure that the PM's advisers will remind him that there is a precedent for Brits feigning death and moving to Panama and it isn't a happy one.