Archive for September, 2008
Combatting fuel poverty
September 9th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
This week, 12 organisations – including Energywatch which is about to go into Consumer Focus (of which I am a Board member) – have published a 10-point charter for overcoming fuel poverty in the UK. Fuel poverty has become a national disaster – five million households in the UK won’t be able to afford to […]
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
Damn that scam
September 8th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Can you believe it? About 3 million Britons are being cheated of £3.5 billion a year by fraudsters who solicit money by letter, email, text and telephone, the Office of Fair Trading states today. Fewer than one in 20 victims report their experience, but trading watchdogs hope to help consumers fight back after a survey […]
Posted in Consumer matters | Comments (0)
Now Canada has an election too
September 7th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
As if the election campaign in the United States was not enough excitement for North Americans, we now have the news – expected for several weeks – that we are going to be into an election campaign in Canada as well. It’s “official” as of today and the date is 14 October. Prime Minister Stephen […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
Some differences between American and British politics
September 7th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
As someone who is intensely interested in politics generally, and British and American politics most especially, I’m fascinated by some of the differences between the political scenes on the two sides of the Atlantic. Inevitably, I’m oversimplifying somewhat, but the following differences strike me as instructive: In the USA, blue signifies the Democratic Party, the […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (12)
The American presidential election (63)
September 6th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
A friend has drawn my attention to this way of comparing the content of the Convention speeches by Barack Obama and John McCain – a visual representation of the frequency with which key words were used by the respective speakers. Check out ‘economy’.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)
Why are oil prices rising so fast? (6)
September 6th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
Three months ago, I did my first posting on the dramatic rise in oil prices and challenged the conventional view that prices had risen so far and so fast because of an increase in demand. In my second posting on the subject, I suggested that the markets were wrong and that oil prices would fall […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The American presidential election (62)
September 6th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
OK, I’ve now seen the speech by John McCain to the Republican National Convention. It was just like one of his town hall meetings rather than an oratorical call to arms. It’s not just that the delivery was lack-lustre – we’ve come to expect that. It’s that it was so light on policy, especially on […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
Energy suppliers ripping us off
September 5th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The Local Government Association, a cross-party organisation representing more than 400 councils in England and Wales, commissioned independent experts SQW energy to investigate the published financial statements of the six major energy suppliers. You can see the results here. in summary, the analysis found that dividend payments have risen from £1.378 billion in 2006 to […]
Posted in British current affairs | Comments (1)
Forgotten World (145): Netherlands Antilles
September 5th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
It was the 17th century when the Dutch colonised the present five far-flung Caribbean islands that make up the Netherlands Antilles, alongside Aruba. The territory, once called the Dutch West Indies, became self-governing in 1954. Aruba then pulled out of the federation in 1986 to become an autonomous Dutch territory. The other five, with a […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
The American presidential election (61)
September 4th, 2008 by Roger Darlington
The selection of Sarah Palin, the Governor of Alaska, as John McCain’s Republican running mate has certainly enlivened what was already a very exciting – and seemingly very close – presidential race. Her address to the Republican National Convention in St Paul has energised the traditional Republican base, but I’m not sure that its hard-line […]
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (1)