Tony. It’s not all that many years ago, they skated on ice in the Fens, in particular, in the Bourne, (Lincs) area. It was a big thing, competitions, speed skating etc. however, It seems a long time ago since it was last done, so perhaps it’s colder in some areas than others in the U.K. at times.
Lincoln .7

It wouldn’t be allowed in any case now, because of Health and Safety regulations….

I remember riding my bike across the frozen River Welland in the winter of 62/63 as a short cut, and also with a group of friends we went along it for miles.

Steven

There has been something of a sea-change in opinion over the last year as the realisation dawns that the AGW meme has been based on some contentious science, and that the computer climate models, upon which much has been predicted are in fact wrong.

Even the Economist, a previously uncritical advocate of AGW, is now backpedalling, as the long run of levelled off temperatures contradicts the computer models.

The failure of the oceans to heat up has also sown doubt and confusion in the minds of the AGW advocates.

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21574461-climate-may-be-heating-up-less-response-greenhouse-gas-emissions

The recent UK budget took a turn towards reality with encouragement for shale gas drilling, so there is an encouraging political dimension to this as well.

Steven

The result was rare though. A two-one for Red Bull and a four-three for Mercedes.

Steven

I think it’s fair to say that the Daily Telegraph seldom dodges a chance to have a dig at the BBC, and there is a clear and long-standing editorial slant on issues like climate change.

As a newspaper it is their duty to report on the many failures and contradictions of BBC.

The DT environmental correspondents, Geoffrey Lean and Louise Grey, are notoriously pro-AGW. Other contributors take a different view.

Steven

More from David Bellamy on his fall from grace at BBC.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2294560/The-great-green-1-The-hard-proof-finally-shows-global-warming-forecasts-costing-billions-WRONG-along.html

Man-made global warming has become scientific orthodoxy, with no room for dissent. Tragically, the traditional caution of my brethren has gone out of the window along with the concept of sceptical peer reviewing to test new theories. Opponents of man-made global warming are regarded as dangerous heretics, as I learnt to my cost.

Soon after the IPCC was created, I was invited to what is now the Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research in Exeter to hear a presentation on global warming. As the face of natural history on the BBC and a science academic, they wanted to enrol me in their cause. But when I read the so-called evidence, I realised it was flawed and refused to ‘sign up’. I rapidly found myself cast out from the BBC and the wider scientific community. When I helped some children campaign against a wind farm as part of a Blue Peter programme, I was publicly vilified. Abusive emails criticised me. I realised my career at the BBC was over.

Steven

Cyprus to leave tbe Euro?

Cyprus is now said to be considering leaving the Euro.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/matspersson/100023412/tomorrow-cyprus-could-vote-to-leave-the-euro-this-is-political-dynamite/

…All bailouts are unfair – the people who screwed up almost never pay – but this is in a league of its own. Seventeen Eurozone finance ministers locked themselves in a room and decided that every Cypriot depositor – whether super-wealthy or dirt-poor –will, out of the blue, see part of their hard-earned money seized. Remember, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades explicitly promised in his election campaign, only a few weeks ago, that depositors were safe….

If they do leave the Euro, are there any guesstimates on how this will impact the UK? Will it solve their problems?

Steven

This is Osborne’s comment on the situation.

…Britain was “not part of the bail-out” because David Cameron “got us out of these euro bail-outs” when he became prime minister and he added that Cyprus is an example of “what happens if you don’t show the world you can pay your way”…

However, if this ability for a government to confiscate money from people’s bank accounts to support a EU bailout in Cyprus is being done with full EU approval, then it could also be applied elsewhere, and for different reasons. Last week the EU refused to ratify the reduced budget, and instead asked for more money. Are these two moves connected? Would Osborne and Cameron be able to defend us against a compulsory raid on our accounts by the EU?

Steven

I hadn’t realised that Chris Huhne worked as a journalist for the Guardian. That explains almost everything.

He wasn’t liked by them either…

…Huhne continued to write for the Guardian and then the Independent — earning a reputation for being despised by his colleagues for his ruthless ambition and utter lack of charm, warmth or decency. When he first ran for parliament in 1983, his election campaign was sabotaged by some of his colleagues at the Guardian — a fact gleefully reported by Britain’s Private Eye magazine…

Although they had to hide his misdeeds to protect tbemselves…

In the early 1980s, while working for The Guardian newspaper, Huhne had lied and fabricated details in a story that maligned several people and a major organization. His purpose was simple. To advance his career by appearing to break what appeared on the surface to be a juicy scandal. But the facts didn’t remotely support the story Huhne had pre-sold his editor. So — like any Jayson Blair in a hurry –Huhne simply distorted the facts to suit the narrative in his story pitch. The organization, the maligned people and many other luminaries protested the lies in Huhne’s fabrication to The Guardian.

But the Guardian didn’t want to admit that its staff member was a flagrant liar and that it had been duped by its rising reporter. The exposure of Huhne’s opportunistic mendacity and tissue of odious lies was swept under the carpet. So at a point when Huhne could have been exposed for who and what he really was, he was instead coddled and protected. Which is perhaps why to this day the Guardian continues to print sympathetic pieces about the now jailed felon who once worked for the paper.

Steven