Burning Lemons

In case you haven’t heard (and seriously that would be unlikely) tonight at 20:30 local time we’re meant to switch all our lights off for an hour in an attempt to save the planet or something.
Now while I believe that global warming is a pressing issue I personally will not be taking part tonight for the following reasons

1) All the lightbulbs in our house are low energy and use a pitiful amount of energy compared to the TV, this laptop, the microwave and all the other things I’m still allowed to run
2) It’s dark outside during Earth Hour and I need to work tonight
3) Scotland are playing The Netherlands and I’ll be depressed enough

Instead of taking part I’m going down the much more worthwhile route of avoiding waste - turning computers off properly, not leaving things on standby etc - rather than not using energy I really need to.

Comments/long posts telling me why I’m wrong welcome as always

Since the election of The SNP Government in May 2007 the issue of Scotland succeding from The United Kingdom has again become an issue. Some people are beginning to argue that even though we are yet to get anywhere close to a referendum on actual independence the SNP is gradually moving the country in that direction by diversifying Scotland from the rest of The UK.

For example just the other day it was announced that all trains in Scotland will be repainted into a livery defined by Transport Scotland (the government regulator of Transport) and not one decided on by the operating company (in this case FirstScotRail). While this may seem insignificant it is another example of The SNP choosing to do things differently to The rest of The UK. Other examples exist across Health, Education and almost every area touched by the government.

So is this independence by stealth. I find it hard to think so, while the SNP are clearly pro-independence I believe this is only a case of deciding what is best for Scotland as opossed to remaiing in-line with the rest of The UK.

The laptop I’m typing this on was sold to me as being 2.75cm thick. The milk I poured on my cereal this morning came out a 1 pint bottle. I’m going to get in a car later and travel at 70mph. Tomorrow I will go to a school that 4 years ago taught me to measure in square metres, kilos and litres.

Britain appears to be the only country that still uses two systems of measurement. We still use the imperial system for some things (cartons of milk) and metric for other things (cartons of juice). The metric switchover began 40 years ago and is still not complete. To give you an idea how long this has been going on my mum (now 48) was taught using the metric system, but still we have failed to finish switching over.

Many people in Britain point to the case of a grocer who was (I think) sent to jail 5 years ago for refusing to sell his goods in metric weights as a sign of the country going mad. This however was not a sign of legislation having a problem. The man good sell his goods in pounds as much as he liked. He just had to offer measurment in a metric alternative as well.

So why don’t we change? Well most governments see the change as something that would lose them vital votes without making a huge difference in the position of society so no-one, especially now fells the need to make the change.

But while I believe that the change would not be instantly popular I think that it will in the long term make the functioning of the country far smoother and easier

Well we’re now just under 30 minutes away from the first results in the super Tuesday poll in Georgia. The latest I’ve heard is that the race for the Dem nomination is way too tight to call, thankfully Barek Obama is managing to pull slightly closer to Hillary Clinton. On the GOP side John McCain could well seal it up tonight. The most important thing to remember here is that the polls can go very wrong. In the NH primary Barek Obama was forecast to win by 10-15% and Clinton ended up taking the race with a 3-5% margin. I’ll have more later but if you’re looking for coverage I wholeheartedly endorse (groan) Al Jazeera English: if you don’t get it on TV (in the UK it’s on Sky 514) watch it online at http://Jalipo.com

Hurrah! It’s time for another primary which means CNNi gets to take away CNN Today and provide us with wonderful election night ‘alternatives’ such as Lou Dobbs Tonight (seriously who the hell is that guy and why does he have a TV show). Then we will have the ‘best political team in the business’ spending 4 hours telling us what a great political team they are and occasionally mentioning the voting thing that seems to be happening in Florida right now. On the other hand Al Jazeera may send Dave Marish to stand in a room and tell me nothing I don’t know. The BBC will send Katty Kay out in snowboots to talk to some old Nixon Republican and a desperate Edwards supporter and France 24 will desperately try to scrape together enough euros to afford a flight to Florida.

 OK I guess this is the point where I give you my view on the whole thing, I was kind of ok with Guliani until I read an article in Vanity Fair (I know, I know) about his sleazy business links and that put me right off him so I now don’t even have a ‘least worst’ option for them. For the Dems (even though tonight doesn’t count for reasons I don’t understand) Obama seems the best bet but anyone who isn’t Clinton will do.  

Update: The Primary has been and gone and the projected results have been borne out. What worries me though is how well Clinton did once we finally got to a big state. It will be interesting to see if similar results come on Super Tuesday.