PowerSwitch

A petition to ask Brown to respond to the UKERC report -- http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/Global%20Oil%20Depletion --on the impacts of an imminent peak in global oil production is now on-line:
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/UKERCoilreport/

It's worth signing, if only for the entertainment value of Gordon Brown trying to resolve in words the contradictory messages of market economics with the reality of what a declining energy supply means for the 'business as usual' mentality.

Tell your friends to sign too!

P.

I've just signed it and then got distracted looking at the rejected petitions. Why can't we petition the prime minister to give away free jagermeister at new year, or sex a badger?

signed - would love to hear his response!

neckiep wrote: sex a badger?

Aren't there laws against that sort of thing?

And of course, with an election looming, you could always contact the prospective candidates from each party and send them the details, and ask their views -- of course don't expect any action, it's purely the entertainment value of the relies!

There is a UKERC presentation tommorrow night in the House of Commons.

I'll be there John.

Hope to get there if I can get finished at the British Library first.

What's the point? Do you expect any sort of result?

The politicians have shown themselves to be scheming corrupt swine.

Civil servants aren't a lot better.

The bankers etc have also shown themselves to be evil.

Take a look around - I mean a REAL look around.

You will see that the UK is in a TOTAL mess.

This mess was created or enabled by The Powers That Be ... who are still very comfortable thank you.

Their smugness, arrogance & stupidity has enabled the BNP to claim a HUGE potential following.

We are now simply waiting for 'a big change' ... and the politicians & other parasites had better hope that they are out of the country when that happens.

I see trouble ahead ...

... and it's us poor Mr & Mrs Taxpayer who will get caught up in the cog wheels of what is to come.

Vortex wrote:What's the point? Do you expect any sort of result

I think Sun Tzu summed it up most eloquently 2,500-odd years ago --

Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
(1) He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
(2) He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
(3) He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
(4) He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
(5) He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.

Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Chapter 3, The Art of War, Sun Tzu

I have learned that: "You can't beat City Hall."

Despite that I went on the G20 protest in my suit at the age of 55.

Despite being interviewed by half the world's media ... and the other protestors breaking things ... no result.

Forget polls and letters ... The Powers That Be simply ignore them.

Vortex wrote: Forget polls and letters ... The Powers That Be simply ignore them.

Well, occasionally they "do something" that either (a) is actually nothing or (b) is something, but is reversed as soon as people lose interest in it.

As for the petition - what's the point in signing it? The Government knows about PO and, like us, knows there is nothing that can be done about it, except the introduction of martial law.

Vortex wrote:I have learned that: "You can't beat City Hall."

I agree, but with a significant caveat -- you can't beat them at their own game because they write (and re-write on a whim) the rules and choose the terms of engagement. What we have to do is: a) make them live up to their own rules (they can't and keep the system running); whilst b) finding all the flaws in their thinking/policy and exploit them by redefining the terms of engagement (where we have to engaged -- in general I think we should just make our own solutions) in our favour.

Demonstrations/petitions don't achieve that -- even the most militant Black Bloc, hard core activist is still working within a Spectacle defined by the authorities control of public space and the mainstream media's control over the content of what is relayed to the public (e.g., the comparative lack of policing outside RBS was bound to result in broken windows in the City). But as I noted earlier, it's the very fact that Gordon Brown will probably completely mangle any response to this petition (in the face of the evidence provided by UKERC) that's of value in our awareness raising/education work with the public.

Personally I thought G20 was a waste of time, and the policing was stage-managed (and even then they managed to balls it up!). The decisions at big conferences like G20, or Copenhagen in December, are agreed weeks before; all the leaders do is turn up to sign, chat, eat expensive food and pose for the photo.

If you want to get at them you have to, as you indicate, learn the power of ignoring their "importance" (that is, their belief in their own importance which, in Goebbel's terms, is the ultimate 'Big Lie') whilst learning how they do what they do in order to work around their restrictions and do what you want to do with the least hassle.... sort of like socio-political hacking!

APPGOPO is interesting precisely because, even within Westminster, it's considering something that the mainstream of politics would rather ignore -- as I discovered when I talked to Business, Innovation and Skills Department minister Ian Lucas on Saturday after we had some "subtle disagreements" on a public questions panel. But the fact that it's taking place at all makes it a valuable means of gathering information precisely because it violates the more general myopia to such 'business as unusual' issues by mainstream politics, and allows a space for discussion and information gathering "in their own back yard".

Eventually Westminster will have to recognise and address energy security/peak oil. Reports like the UKERC (and the more recent Global Witness report) bring this time sooner.

John and APPGOPO deserve all the support they can get, it would be all to easy for a backbencher not to stick their neck out like this. And whilst at times I expect it feels a thankless task I feel it is important.

Yes, I think it is important too - for the (minority) of MPs who actually care about the governance and future of this united kingdom in which we live.

I suppose one of the problems "we" perceive is the general malaise we see in politics and the cynacism this creates. Whenever thinking people can actually see what has quite a high likelyhood of materialising (Peak everything) and we can see the impact this will likely have, yet we see the planners and managers and leaders of our future doing bugger all preparation, as they are too interested in maximising their own pockets and positioning/worrying about getting elected in the next cycle.

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