SHALOM - SUPER SOLAR POWERS.

Desert Power for all Europe.

SHALOM - CAN ISRAEL FIND PEACE, IN OUR TIME?

*********

26 Oct 2015 - Nick writes about a massive solar farm in Morocco: 

That is fascinating stuff.

I am slightly surprised by the size of the solar plant. But it is such an obvious source of energy. I suppose the solar panels will gradually become more and more efficient, and therefore smaller. 

I like the reference to the "unelected" king of Morocco. Is this relevant to the article? Aren't all kings and queens "unelected"?

But, let's follow this and see how successful the project is.

As for Palestinians and Israelis living peacefully side by side, that is another matter altogether.

And, yes, I believe Israel and Egypt do business together. There is still a peace dividend being drawn.

Nick

********** 

26 Oct 2015, at 10:31, Noel wrote:

Hi Mel & Nick

Game Changer?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/26/morocco-poised-to-become-a-solar-superpower-with-launch-of-desert-mega-project

By coincidence, the Guardian today features the type of large solar power station I’m talking about – coming on line in Morocco now.

The far larger German plans will/would power all Europe and Africa. Add desert wind-power (see Caltech’s latest close packed mini-towers – making 10 times the energy)  and power storage - via the old trick of pumping water uphill during excess output (from solar or wind, which also blows at night) – and an area such as the uninhabited Qattari depression, flooded with 1,000 km of coastline will become very wealthy – making living space for Arab-Israeli families to enjoy in peace.

Does Israel do business with Egypt?

Noel

**********

Noel wrote:  Yes – Depressing and implacable. How might things change? There are 6 M Jews and 6 M Arabs in Israel Palestine – with 372 people per sq km (398 in England). Growing daily. No wonder there is immense stress.

Comfortable middle-class families don’t wage war:  As World Dictator I would have the World Bank develop a large tract of the uninhabited Sahara – for family living, and there establish a major high-tech energy industry to make it one of the wealthiest regions on Earth. ( Specialist economies do function well – in 1999 Iceland was the 3^rd wealthiest global community; earning 85% from fishing.) Buy this derelict Qattari region from Egypt. First lovely homes and first great jobs will be offered to emigrant Arab-Israelis who each personally must sign a Mutual Tolerance Pact. 

Germany has a plan for massive solar farms in the Sahara to make all the energy the EU needs. But that plan requires peace. Aim to reduce the Israel-Palestine population density to 50% or 33%. And educate, educate, educate – and educate.

Do something – Not do nothing – to change the game.

Shalom - Noel

*********

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographic_history_of_Palestine

As of 2014, Israeli and Palestinian statistics for the overall numbers of Jews and Arabs in the area west of the Jordan, inclusive of Israel and the Palestinian territories, are similar and suggest a rough parity in the two populations. Palestinian statistics estimate 6.08 million Palestinians for that area, while Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics estimates 6,218,000 Jews living in sovereign Israel. Gaza is estimated by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to have 1.7 million, and the West Bank 2.754 million Palestinians, while Israel proper has 1,719,000 Arab citizens.^[53] According to Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics, as of May 2006, of Israel's 7 million people, 77% were Jews, 18.5% Arabs, and 4.3% "others".^[54] Among Jews, 68% were Sabras (Israeli-born), mostly second- or third-generation Israelis, and the rest are olim – 22% from Europe and the Americas, and 10% from Asia and Africa, including the Arab countries.^[55]

World Bank - Population density (people per sq. km) in Israel

Population density (people per sq. km) in Israel was last measured at 372.43 in 2013

TELEGRAPH - In 2008 the average number of people per square kilometre in Britain was 253, rising to 395 in England.

******* 

Nick originated this topic - he wrote:  

'Morning gents,

I found this rather depressing article today, and thought I would share it with you.

After I read it, and this confirms many other articles and thoughts recently, it makes me more determined that we need to get together with a good film and good bottle of wine.

How are you fixed next week? Any evening except Wednesday for me. Or, the week after? But not later!

http://m.nydailynews.com/opinion/daniel-gordis-no-country-jews-article-1.2400841

**********
Noel last month wrote:

6 Sep 2015.

For the kind attention of Philip Hammond, UK Secretary of State, Tony Blair and David Miliband.

GREEN SAHARA FOR MILLIONS OF SYRIAN AND OTHER REFUGEES.

Europe is crowded with 200-300 people per sq km, and is politically complex. I suggest the greening and hi-tech commercial wealth development of  large areas of the Sahara Desert starting with the uninhabited 19,000 sq km Qattari depression in Egypt – just 50 miles inland from The Mediterranean and an average 60 metres below see level.

I have no idea how governments might be persuaded, but hope that you gentlemen know how to form an effective, immediate, international joint-venture..

In civil engineering terms it is relatively easy to dig a rough wide canal, to flood the depression. The Bamforth Family (JCB Cheshire) could do it in a short time (The navigable Manchester Ship Canal was dug by hand). The sea-inlet-channel could be roughly dug and made navigable later. This is a 100 year old proposal. The 1,000 km new inland seashore could house the current German plan for massive solar power plants to feed the whole of Europe. From the first spade-full of earth or sand, jobs and commerce would be created – to attract refugee families. This high-tech, inland sea will become one of the wealthiest global communities.

There are several such huge dust bowl depressions in the Sahara; which could be connected to the oceans.

GLOBAL WARMING - Flooding these depressions will provide some temporary relief to the sea level rise that President Obama realistically fears. And greening the desert might help to absorb significant amounts of global warming gases. ALASKA MELTDOWN - OBAMA

Here is the basic concept. Can you political experts bring about the cooperation required to quickly turn this old idea into homes, lives and futures for the 5 million or so refugees.?

HAVENS FOR REFUGEES

We live in hope.

Noel Hodson,

Oxford.

noel@noelhodson.com

THE FEARS - MEL WRITES AGAIN

Syrian refugees in Turkey 2015.

The Fears

Mel writes again: 

"Hi Noel! I was walking in the Parks this morning and ran into people who were raving about the disasters that taking in immigrants will have upon poor, benighted UK communities. I bit my tongue and did not rant back! I guess I was just too surprised by the elderly couple who had clearly lived through World War II and all that followed and sounded more scared and confused than evil. However, I got home and opened by computer and found that the BBC news site was reporting that :

“ a little earlier, Hungary's parliament “passed a series of new laws as part of a crackdown on illegal immigrants, meaning:

•    It will be a criminal offence to cross or damage the fence being constructed along the border with Serbia

•    Illegal border crossing will be punishable by up to three years in prison

•    It will be possible to submit asylum requests at border crossing points”

Earlier, Prime Minister Viktor Orban told public radio:

"Now we talk about hundreds of thousands [of migrants] but next year we will talk about millions and there is no end to this. All of a sudden we will see that we are in a minority in our own continent."

(I am feeling like quoting my grandmother whenever I hear the name Viktor Orban. When I was a toddler, whenever she heard the name Stalin she would cry: Stalin! Stalin? I spit upon his name!)

So, Orban predicts we will be a minority in our own continent. What we is that? White people? Christians? Hungarians? Really???? We will be overrun?  Gawd, it sounds worse than the World Jewish Conspiracy, all these greedy Muslims besieging poor helpless Europe.

Syrian Refugees walking from
Hungary to Austria.

A member of UKIP named  Peter Bucklitsch, may this name too  -- more spitting required -- live in the books of infamy for all of his twenty minutes of fame, did today explain that the children who died in the Mediterranean recently were dead because of their parents being greedy for the good life of Europe instead of staying where they belonged in the war zone that was their home and Calvinistic fate and where they were probably deserving potential victims of genocidal fundamentalist co-religionists. And if you cannot credit it.

So should we fear being overrun by a hostile and Triffid-like wave of aliens, people whose skins and cultures and religions are Other? (And what happened to the French Declaration of the Rights of Man, the separation of Church and State, and the rights of people to worship as they wished as long as there was a secular rule of law?)

What is the total population of Europe? What if the EU actually came up (about 3 years late) with a policy that offered homes to refugees (and migrants?) based on fair distribution throughout Europe? What if someone spoke to Putin about taking in a few people to populate some of the empty areas of Russia that could use a bit of settlement and exploitation? What if the UN finally persuaded its delegates to have a debate about giving homes to refugees according to a fair world-wide system and also that reflected all the fine words and resolutions that were passed after WWII?  What if Canada, or Australia, which have lots of open spaces that could use pioneers to settle them still, actually opened themselves up to helping out in a major way? What then? Would it really mean that all of a sudden everyone will be a minority in their own continent? (Like the Native American Indians after about 1600?)

World War Two - Undesirable Aliens

And do the natives of Europe (how many generations a native of the country you live in, I wonder?) really think that all that is going to happen is that there will be a huge influx of people living forever off the different national benefit systems? In the UK the right wing press is promoting the idea that the benefit cheats are destroying the fragile economy that was originally devastated by Labour incompetence. (More about who was responsible for the economic crisis of 2008 later from me and elsewhere from Noel Hodson! It’s really quite important to understand that and get it right.)

Actually, the statistics for how much benefit cheats cost the government of the UK is something in the range of 0.7% of the total money spent on benefits; and most of the money (maybe around 50%) is going to landlords of the private sector – David Cameron and George Osborne’s Holy Grail sector – whose tax fiddles and outrageously over-bloated rents are supposed to generate a trickle down effect to those whose benefits have recently been capped – no matter what the exceptional circumstances – or who are being penalized for having an extra room in their house.

One thing is sure, this is not the era of joined up thinking! So are we to assume that none of the refugees will be professional people, skilled people, trained people? That none will want to re-educate themselves, gain new qualifications, learn the language of the country they end up in or build a new life? That none will be able to take on jobs or might be computer literate and be helpful to companies that are trying to exploit the new economy IT has generated?

In other words, we cannot expect a refugee to take a job, earn money, pay taxes, pay rent, buy food, buy clothes or in any way contribute to the economy of his or her new homeland? Or that over, say, three generations, there will be some amount of culturisation and maybe also some romance and new families started?

Listen, guys, this will come as a shock to you but they have worked out the genome and it seems that Hitler and other racists were wrong and that the more remote the gene pools are that mix, the more it reinvigorates the local human stock! But it’s so much less scary to be inbred and deal with the consequences of that, clearly, I reckon.

And who now has a world wide platform for this nonsense? Victor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary, that’s who. With no sense of history, and a leader who has all the hallmarks about him of hoping to be a successful a fascist, racist non-visionary thug running a police state, we have to wish the Hungarians good luck in waking up to what they are doing to themselves by voting this man into power, let alone what they are doing through him to the desperate refugees who have foolishly turned up because of geographic necessity to try to get across the Hungarian country and get the hell out of there as fast as they can to somewhere civilized like Germany. (At the moment, I like Angela Merkel.)

And what would the court of human rights in the Hague (or is it Brussels that should speak out?) have to say about what I assume is the illegality of selling someone a ticket to Germany from Budapest and then refusing to let the train take him or her to Berlin after they have bought the ticket with what is often their last bit of money? (Come to that, who is letting the thousands of refugees camped in or near the railway station use the toilets, for which you have to pay; or providing some food and water for the dehydrated and uncomfortable families?) Isn't the selling of the ticket a contract that the Hungarian government and police have now broken? I wonder if someone should sue them?!?!  just to make a point ...?

Finally, I doubt any arguments will convince the unconvinceable, prejudiced and ultimately truly frightened people who see the refugees as a threat to their culture and way of life and who should be kept out therefore. It was ever thus! It’s fear of the other. It’s also a shocking lack of optimism about the adaptability of the human being to changes of circumstance.

And it is, above all, a huge failure to recognize what is going on as a moral issue and a test of whether we really have learned that lesson: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. " 

Mel, Oxford, 4 SEPT 2015

Read More: 

BACK TO THE 1930's & VOLTAIRE

******

BEAN COUNTING NUMBERS:

The European Union has 550M people. In addition to the EU, Russia is the largest country on Earth with immense tracts of uninhabited land – with 9 people per sq km. The highest estimate I have heard of migrant/refugees heading for Europe is 1M or  1/550^th of present populations. With Goodwill and good planning – the one million could easily be decently housed, fed and integrated.

HAVENS FOR REFUGEES

I may have told you our true story of Iceland after/during the Vietnam War? They gave welcome, homes, money, new business starts, school places etc to 20 Vietnamese refugee families. Within 3 years all 20 families had gone. The puzzled, kindly Icelanders told us this over tea in a Reykjavik café, dark outside at 3pm, with horizontal freezing rain driving past the window; a nice breezy day for natives – a terrible cold, dismal, soul destroying day for Vietnamese. Not all migrants will stay in Europe – many prefer the Middle East.

It is time for some cool calm political thinking.

Noel

BACK TO THE 1930's & VOLTAIRE

Mel, an Oxford man of letters, writes or rants, on today's topical, critical issues. 

To date my Ranting Society has been limited to just two members, an irate American  and myself. I think this article, from Mel, has earned him an Honorary Membership of The Ranting Society. As another friend is fond of saying "Next - He'll be stopping people in the street..." Of course, everything that Mel says ought to be seriously considered by all western policy makers. Of course, no politician is intelligent enough to engage with it. - Noel - 3 SEP 2015

Are we repeating the 1930's?

Mel writes: "Should we not be delighted and feel a sense of comfortable deja-vu to see that an Eastern European nation like Hungary remains consistent and loyal to its bigoted roots? And that so many people do not consider that something new is happening which needs to be thought through and dealt with in ways that differ from 1930's isolationism?

I always felt that I could not believe how stupid and blind some people were in the 1930s and in appeasing Hitler, keeping out refugees, and thinking you could solve economic problems in a nation by cutting spending and insisting that there should be less and less government intervention. Now I can witness it all and see that they really were that dumb; and that those who do not pay attention to their history really are condemned to repeat it (Voltaire), only not so exactly as to make them see.

I am also waiting for some Christian leaders in these nominally Christian countries actually to speak out forcefully about the Good Samaritan and such parables as that; and that old one about Do Unto Others? Does no one watch the old newsreels any more to see millions of people roaming the highways of Europe after WWII or remember how things were dealt with in Displaced Persons camps? And, of course, all this would cost money, so we had better not go there! Imagine if we had to postpone or slow down some of the replacement of our own weapons of Mass Destruction like Trident!!! Or not build a fast train to Birmingham for an extra few years?

So the failure of the EU and multi-national projects looks much more likely, these days, not because of political wrangling per se or questions about economic subsidies and the courts, etc; but because 27 countries seem unable to sit down and work out a sane, logical policy for dealing with millions of people who are displaced.

And why are they displaced? Personally, I think we should go back beyond Tony Blair and George W Bush to the first Iraq War when not only did Colin Powell insist that that was the time to pursue Saddam and finish his regime, but when the USA in particular encouraged revolts and revolutions against Saddam in Iraq itself with promises of help should the people rise up, and then when people rose up they simply reneged on their promises. And they wonder why no one trusts them? Saddam had a wonderful time murdering his opposition and destroying whole sections of his country where they were hiding throughout the 1990s once the USA made it clear they would not pursue him any further. he didn't need weapons of mass destruction; he was able to achieve all he wanted with a combination of quite ordinary weapons, secret policing, a sycophantic military and the non-interference of the West, especially the USA.

The whole thing is a mess that we had a lot to do with making; and now we will not even help those who are fleeing or approach the problem that has been staring everyone in the face for about five years in any concerted, sane way.

But apart from the whole European approach, what about the UN? What about countries like Canada, which has plenty of room and plenty of wealth and a tradition of helping refugees if they are white and European?

There was a guy on TV this morning explaining that the UK had no requirement in international law to do a damned thing; and if they did, then think of the money it would cost and how it would squeeze our benefits system (as if it was not already squeezed)! And then there was our beloved Prime Minister explaining that really we should be ignoring the refugees because we had to go to the root of the problem, which was to sort out the mess in Syria. I see -- so he thinks it will be cheaper and easier to escalate another war in the Middle East than to take in, educate, acclimatise and find hope for some refugees.

Freud was right. Civilization is a very thin veneer on deep rooted barbarity and solipsism and it takes remarkably little to crack it and have it fall away. And you would think that people might make a connection to WWII and its aftermath and to all those newsreels and movies dealing with the subject that we see on TV virtually every day. But they won't.

So what is Jeremy Corbyn saying about all this? And where is the Archbishop of Canterbury or even the Chief Rabbi?

I am for watching a Judy Garland musical when I get back from Canada. Or even Betty Grable. It has to be better than watching the news! - Mel

Read More:

THE FEARS - MEL WRITES AGAIN

POPE - PRESIDENT - 600 SCIENTISTS - MELTDOWN

Science & Environment - Move to Higher Ground

14 Sept 2015 

Next two years hottest, says Met Office

By Roger Harrabin  BBC environment analyst

********

Nothing new under the Sun. Australian sea level rose 120 metres, according to 10,000 years old oral tradition.  

It may be too late

Mount McKinley, Alaska, renamed Denali. 

31 AUG 2015 - Glacier Conference 

Obama in Alaska 

Please watch this 25 minute plea by President Obama to save the planet from global warming. He analyses the threat as real & immediate. Even so, I still think the scientific meltdown forecasts he cites are ten times too slow and sea rises ten times too shallow. Twenty years ago science forecast sea level rise as 2 mm per century – now science says 2 metres per century (1,000 times faster) – I think its 20 metres this century. Read my 2 novels (links below) & Move to Higher Ground. Do distribute this message - Noel

President Obama delivers remarks at the GLACIER Conference in Alaska.

August 31, 2015

https://www.whitehouse.gov/2015-alaska-trip?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=email496-image3&utm_campaign=alaska

Read More: 

HUMAN RACE - SURVIVAL

And read my 2 popular novels to alert the public – one painting a great future.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/OUT-THE-DEPTHS-future-Book-ebook/dp/B007MB9ZHY

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AD2516-After-Global-Warming-Future-ebook/dp/B007N2H9JI

Hi - To Nick and Mel.

WORLD GOVERNMENT NEEDS GLOBAL WARMING

The prospects for World Government are not as distant as we might think. Since my few years 1992-98 of attending EC meetings in Brussels, intelligent cooperation has been creeping up on us:

1) There is now an effective instant world currency – via Paypal, Visa etc. which was unimaginable in 1992.

2) There is worldwide emergency health care with reciprocal arrangements between all OECD countries.

3) Space air and sea travel is necessarily controlled and monitored worldwide.

4) The internet brings global instant knowledge, data and education-  apart from a few blackspots, which will not stand against the tide of IT innovation.

5) We can personally direct dial telephone across the world at low prices – inconceivable in 1992.

6) Most key science subjects are shared internationally – whatever small minded governments may want.

7) Sport – with all its inherent corruption – is international.

8) Music, film, theatre and art is pretty much international. I think the Met Opera broadcasts live to hundreds of cinemas in 50 or so nations.

9) Language – English is currently the international language – and is so for all control of transport and travel. Our desk computers will translate any language. Inconceivable in 1992.

These are just a few examples of worldwide governance agencies and tools – I’m sure you can think of many more; all imperfect but globally very functional nevertheless.

10) To build and bind world government needs a global Common Enemy – and we have one in Global Warming. Whatever you think of Obama, his 25 minute speech last week, warning Alaska and the world about Arctic meltdown, wasn’t just his rhetoric; he cited carefully considered White House approved data. It is  COMING NOW – is a common enemy, a Real & Present Danger, as deep voiced American documentary presenters put it; which is already creating, in Alaska, the first of about 5 billion homeless refugees who live on the coastal margins (London, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Cairo etc). The global community has no option but to deal with it globally. The next meeting is in Paris in December. This planetary crisis will lead to global action; lets hope the actions bring Intelligent Cooperation, not WW3. Maybe this month’s minor refugee crisis is a practice run.

http://noelhodson.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/alaska-meltdown-says-obama.html

In God We Trust – Move to Higher Ground – Create World Government

Noel

************* 

WORLD GOVERNMENT

Subject: Re: Iran nuclear deal.  To Noel:

Unfortunately, the world seems to be governed by self serving non-entities. Can you name an inspiring, competent dynamic world or national leader?

The UN has proved to be useless as a peacekeeping body.

All major international bodies have shown themselves to be corrupt or inefficient or both. Witness UN, FIFA, World athletics, cycling, not to mention the EU etc etc.

So, where does does this leave us with a possible world government?

Sorry, Noel, world government is a nice idea, but is utterly impractical.

I hate to be too depressing, but, in terms of governance, we are in trouble!

Maybe Corbyn will jolt us into some action. Cameron needs to wake up and provide some real leadership - but don't hold your breath on this.

Obama, I am afraid, is a lost cause.

Nick

********* 

On 18 Sep 2015, at 10:37, To Nick - Excellent but terrifying points. We need a massive effective UN police force - now. I have just responded to John who is worried about worldwide banking collapse and the withdrawal of depositor guarantees (below).

The world needs world government. (Under President for Life Corbyn?). We seriously need world government – and very soon. - Noel

*********

MONEY & BANKS

Hi John

What I mean is that governments should globally monitor all banks' and financial companies' balance sheets on a daily basis on behalf of all customers and the financial world. 99% of banks use large IBM machines - a "daily balance sheets cross-added spreadsheet" would be easy arithmetic for these computers. There is no other way that We The People can have the faintest clue about the health of financial institutions. If we are to risk our savings - we need this simple bookkeeping information. This, the opaque and corrupt Money-Economy, is a global problem.

Noel

************ 

To Noel from John  - Bank deposit guarantees

I think the problem is that it does have government rules, and those are the new bail-in laws. On that basis government is the problem.

***************

Re - eurozone races to restructure Greek banks

John

Thanks for this FT article.

I appreciate that banks may be allowed to go bust and that depositors may lose their savings. I don't know what the ordinary person can do. Even top bankers don't understand their own balance sheets.

A future answer may be for a global daily report of all financial institutions - it is possible in our computer age. Many of the bookkeeping cross added rows would total zero; one banks deposits being another's borrowing.

It needs government rules - Noel

********************* 

NUCLEAR WAR 

Subject: Iran nuclear deal.

Date: 17 September 2015

To: "Nichola BLACKWOOD MP,

Dear Nicola (I hope you don't mind me calling you Nicola),

I am afraid that I am not in the least reassured by your note.

I am reluctant to overfill your postbag with my ramblings, but I will just make a few brief points, based on some of your remarks.

1.         "to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon". At the absolute best it only delays the bomb for about 10-15 years. This means other countries, especially Saudi Arabia will run for nuclear immediately in order to catch up. A new nuclear arms race.

2.            " Iran will grant the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access". This is wrong. First, The White House has been at pains to say the Iran/IAEA agreement is confidential. So, do we really know what it contains?

Second, from what we do know, Iranian military bases are off limits to Inspectors, and inspections will be carried by …… Iranians!

3.            "the international community will lift some of its sanctions on Iran". Unfortunately, restrictions will be lifted without the ability to "snap" them back in place. Russia, China and the EU can't wait to do business with Iran and open the floodgates to billions of dollars flowing to Iran. What will Iran do with all this money? The mullahs and terrorists around the world are already laughing.

4.            "this agreement will herald a step-change in Iran's relations with its neighbours and the international community". Have you noticed any change at all in Iran's attitude towards the West, towards the US, towards the UK, towards Israel. If anything the rhetoric is getting worse. Why do you think it will suddenly change, just because we have caved in on this agreement? To believe so is wishful thinking. As a wise man once said, "If a man says often enough that he is going to kill you, you had better take him seriously".

5.            On the human rights issue, there has not been a single concession - frankly nor is there likely to be - or release of US prisoners. What incentive does Iran have to change? We have removed all possible sanctions, and Iran knows there is no danger of military intervention on this or on any other issue.

Sorry, but I cannot disagree more with you and the PM on this issue. I am surprised that there has not been a greater debate.

Kind regards

Nick 

 **************

On 17 Sep 2015, Nicola Blackwood MP wrote:

Dear ***Nick***

Thank you for contacting me about the historic deal on the Iranian nuclear programme. Please accept my apologies for the long delay in my reply, which has been caused by both the parliamentary recess and an extended period after the election when I was very understaffed. Thank you for your patience in awaiting a response ─ we are doing our best to resume normal service.

I understand your concerns. However, please note that the international community has delivered a potentially historic deal with Iran following years of persistent diplomacy and tough sanctions. I believe that this is in our country's interests and secures the UK's fundamental aim − to keep Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

Under the agreement, Iran will grant the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to verify Iran’s adherence to the restrictions placed on its nuclear programme, giving the international community confidence that the programme is, and will remain, peaceful. In return, once Iran has taken key steps to introduce these restrictions, the international community will lift some of its sanctions on Iran, delivering significant economic and financial benefits for the country. Having reached this important agreement, our focus must now be on ensuring its swift and full implementation to make sure that a nuclear weapon remains beyond Iran's reach.

The removal, over time, of economic and financial sanctions represents a huge opportunity for Iranians to make positive decisions about their country's future and its role in the region and the wider world. I have discussed this with Ministers and their view is that this agreement will herald a step-change in Iran's relations with its neighbours and the international community. In my view, the thawing of diplomatic relations is hugely important because it presents the UK with an opportunity to develop longer-term cooperation with Iran. The UK Government will continue to work closely with its international partners to encourage Iran to play a transparent and constructive role in regional affairs, particularly in the struggle against violent Islamist extremism.

Please note that whilst the human rights situation in Iran remains deeply concerning, and the Iranian Government's reaction to international criticism of its human rights record continues to be dismissive, the UK Government has been unwavering in its efforts to hold Iran to account for its abuses, having designated over 80 Iranians responsible for human rights violations under EU sanctions. It has helped establish a UN Special Rapporteur on Iran human rights and successfully lobbied for the renewal of his mandate at the UN Human Rights Council. I hope that the UK will remain a strong voice in seeking improvements. I must emphasise that we can achieve more in this regard if we develop working diplomatic relations  with Iran, which is precisely what this deal will ensure.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact me and I hope you are reassured by my response.

Kind regards,

Nicola

 *************

Sent: 17 August 2015 10:49
To: BLACKWOOD MP, Nicola
Subject: Iran nuclear deal.

**************

Dear Nicola

Sorry to add to your email baggage, but I want to know why, and how, David Cameron can support Obama\'s proposed nuclear deal with Iran.

At its very best, the deal is only for 10 years, after which Iran presses ahead with the bomb. In the meantime, we know how Iran lies about its nuclear development, and that the inspections regime will easily be frustrated. Iran\'s coffers will be hugely inflated by umpteen billions in a relatively short period of time. The Iranians are openly mocking the deal and Obama. They continue to threaten the West, the US and Israel. Why does nobody take their threats seriously?

Is the Government supporting the deal because they see short term trading and economic benefits for UK and EU? Can Mr Cameron really be sure the deal is the best for us all?

  

Nick

HAVENS FOR REFUGEES

Desperate refugees from North Africa and the Middle East, feared to be one million souls, are posing a difficulty for the fledgling 550,000,000 strong European Union, which currently still includes the UK. These people and families are fleeing from wars, corruption and oppression from as far south as Ethiopia, from much of sub-Saharan Africa and from Syria and other war torn countries to the east. The estimates of numbers vary according to the hysteria level of the reporters; as does the reported mix of genuine refugees, economic migrants and crazed ISIS head-lopping killers, among the sad wanderers in the deserts.

The Economist reports that in 2014 there were 500,000, half-a-million asylum applications from north African migrants. We do not know if that is an average annual figure, or an upward or downward statistical blip.  However, it is certain that there are a lot of illegal, unwanted migrants attempting to get out of turbulent Africa & Arabia and into the relatively stable, wealthy, sane countries of Europe; and that the numbers are growing month by month.

Germany, at the heart of Europe, perhaps recalling the 50 million homeless, displaced Europeans after the Second World War, leads Europe in offering to take 300,000 refugees. Several thousand refugees have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea, to Italy, in tiny boats filled several times over capacity by people-trafficking gangsters. Many others have died at the hands of people-traffickers, trapped in large lorries or trucks without food, water or air. It is an immense and harrowing human tragedy which all we civilized persons, across the planet, should help to resolve.

IMMEDIATE ACTION THIS DAY: What has changed in Europe since 1945 is that population density has doubled to 200 - 300 people per square kilometer, putting stress on the entire infrastructure. However, the UK should work with the rest of the European Union to immediately, without delay, bring in tens of thousands of the refugees to camps in Britain and Europe; and from there to work and invest for as long as it takes to decently resettle these families. We cannot close our eyes to this tragic humanitarian crisis.

MAKE AN OASIS OF SPACE, PEACE, PLENTY & SAFETY: My advice to Europe is to deal with Egypt and neighboring countries that border the empty Sahara Desert (0.5 persons per sq km) and invest billions of Euros to create and sustain areas of new long-term economic activity that will attract the refugees. Initially, Europe should build civilized, well planned, spacious, well protected, well serviced, long term refugee camps in Egypt of sufficient quality to attract the migrants. What Europe invests in the camps will be saved by taking pressure off European borders. These camps should also be bases for major civil engineering to bring water from the sea into the heart of the Sahara - as has been proposed for over 100 years. Do NOT simply take the land - think of Israel and buy out the few inhabitants; it'll be a small investment that will save billions of dollars in future strife.

Greening the desert: There have been many viable plans put forward to use such transformed areas to generate electricity that would power the whole of Europe and North Africa. It is in Europe's interests to pay for the work and in Egypt's interests to enjoy the massive inward investment, high-tech trades and very long term transformation.

A new inland sea, fed by canals and made part of the Mediterranean, as large as, for example, the immense Qattara Depression will quickly fill with fish and sea creatures. Its shores will be damp and the surrounding desert will bloom and support crops for the new inhabitants. Solar & wind energy will power desalination plants for pure water. Permanent UN troop garrisons could keep out the wild eyed psychopathic lunatics who are razing the whole region, directly instructed by God. I'm always wary of highly committed, heavily armed thugs who claim that God speaks to or through them.

There are several other areas in the Sahara which could be transformed in the same manner - linking the  world's oceans and thus international trade to what are currently some of the most inhospitable, under occupied regions. If, that is, The One True God allows mankind to make such progress.

**************

Letter to The Guardian - 27th August 2015.

If Europe and the media want positive solutions for African & Middle Eastern migrants (2,000 a day head through gaps in Hungary’s border fence – Guardian 27 August 2015), we could revive Mediterranean canal engineering proposals to flood below sea level regions such as the uninhabited 19,605 sq km Libyan Desert, Qattara Depression, within Egypt's borders. The new coastline could also house the German proposed solar arrays to power the whole of Europe. 

High-tech industry, superb holiday areas, innovative active immigrants, major permanent UN or EU troop centres, and a wetter climate would bring great wealth and safe havens. Otherwise, we could ask Europe’s old friend, Russia, which has only 9 people per sq km, to find room for the refugees. The UK has 262 densely packed people per sq km.  - Noel Hodson, Oxford.

SAHARA – 0.5 people per sq km

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahara

QATARA DEPRESSION – 60 metres below sea level – 19,605 sq km

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qattara_Depression

RUSSIA  - 9 people per sq km

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/population-density-people-per-sq-km-wb-data.html

EUROPE – UK 262 people per sq km

http://www.indexmundi.com/map/?v=21000&r=eu&l=en

WORLD – Top tax havens 19,000 people per sq km

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.POP.DNST

CHINA SHARES - UK DEBT - INTEREST

He borrowed money!

The Debt Business: Tonight, pundits, commentators, journalists and other wise persons, will lecture the dumb UK public via the BBC, on the evils and perils of DEBT. The trailers for this correcting-errant-public-behavior broadcast tell us that private debts among the 63,000,000 Britons has reached the staggering, terrifying, death defying, End-of-the-World, annihilating, crushing total of £1.4 trillion, £66,000 per household.

The trailers have further explained that WHEN INTEREST RATES RETURN TO NORMAL, all the wicked borrowers will be justly bankrupted - and be "cast into the exterior darkness where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth". And it'll jolly well serve all those paupers right, for having the temerity to attempt to join the money-economy - without first having an Eton & Oxbridge PPE, Ivy League education and an inherited family trust fund.

What the people who rule this great nation overlook, and that their tame "Economists" somehow fail to mention at all, is that returning from 0.5% to NORMAL interest rates, by which they mean 5% or more, would gouge £70 billion a year, every year, from the (poor) borrowers - and give it the (rich) lenders. This vast cornucopia of unearned, risk free, effortless income would flow through The City - washing, refreshing and cleansing the dusty gutters and sewers, clogged with bitterness, failure and gall, after the City's immense £1.2 trillion losses in 2008/09. What a blessed relief for "Hardworking Bankers Everywhere".  Is it a strange coincidence that "Hardworking Families" are saddled with the same amount the bankers lost? Where have our past 500 years of hard-earned profits gone?

Meanwhile - in the rest of the world, panic has gripped the other 7 billion hapless souls as, we are told by City and Wall Street money market experts, ...as China, the sleeping dragon that has awoken to greet the 21st century, slows its growth programs. China, they say, will grow by ONLY 7% next year. Seven percent is an immense, unprecedented growth rate for a modern economy - and China is paying for the new investment from its own hard earned, saved-up wealth (Corrupt governors will of course export all the cash to tax-havens and then borrow it back - and blame the poor for high borrowing; as do all the western countries). However, the crazed, half-witted, incontinent- gambling, get-rich-kwik, brokers, bankers, hedge-fund managers and individual speculators - egged on by the media who haven't enjoyed a TOTAL WORLD BREAKDOWN CRISIS for 8 years - having gambled like fools with their own and our and everybody else's money; having bet the house (their & our houses) on China growing at ludicrously impossible rates for eternity - are now panicking.


China has been buying raw materials (commodities), fuel and western expertise for several years, to intelligently invest mainly in Chinese infrastructure. This has created jobs and cash-flow and optimism across the land and cheered up the 1.3 billion citizens - who have become consumers - of Chinese and western goodies. Chinese citizens are traditionally also compulsive gamblers. They have been taking a punt on stock market shares in China - and the more sophisticated have been gambling on the world's major exchanges. Seeing 150% growth in Chinese share prices - these gamblers have also bet the house, the wife, the kids and the venerable grandmother - and rushed out, panicked out to borrow even more to back the miraculous "Free Markets".

It is these shortsighted hysterics who are now selling everything they have bought - and crashing the markets - to pay off their ill judged bank loans. And it is the month of August, when the major professional investors, the pension fund managers, who have to invest billions every day of the year, are away, cruising on their, or a friend's,  private yacht. So when schoolteacher John Doe, South Bronx, sells 50 shares - there are no buyers - and he crashes the New York Stock Exchange. In August, the investment rule is - do nothing.

What the finger wagging, matured trust-fund media and political babes will, I anticipate, be telling and warning UK citizens tonight is "neither a borrower or lender be". If followed, this advice would of course freeze the global economy forever. What our exalted economists seem incapable of doing is accounting for the rapid growth in world populations, the rapid growth in world communications and thus education of possibilities, and the immense growth in the real-economy-transactions across the world. These blinkered economists have not yet learned that the money-economy is a bookkeeping system for, and servant of, the real-economy.

In post-war Britain, families never borrowed. We saved up for as many years as necessary to buy a washing machine - or a high-tech black & white 12 inch TV. Our greatest horror was indulging in Hire Purchase, Credit-Cards, American Express, empowering the peasants, the lower orders, the working class to borrow and buy their washing machine now, today - instead of saving thru-pence a week for 40 years; and continuing to plunge blistered hands into bowls of washing suds and bleach. We didn't want the Hoi-Polloi, the Plebeians, the undeserving, unwashed poor to get above themselves - and start demanding indoor lavatories, baths and cookers. So we restricted and crippled the money supply for two decades. We made DEBT a mortal sin. We tortured our people (except of course the already rich) with grinding poverty, from 1938 to 1958.

Today's governing economists really must learn to count; and to lubricate the real real-economy. Today's youth won't wait 40 years for their next I-phone or first home.

Gambling on the world's stock and commodity markets - markets on which we all depend - ought to be curbed. This can be done with mandatory time lapses, of weeks or months, between buying and selling, and vice versa. We need to inject reality into the real-economy and banish the speculating idiots and spivs - onto the B-Ark. (Douglas Adams - philosopher and innovative economist).

What next? BIRTHRIGHT - so we all become Trust Fund Babes.

DEATH TO THE BBC

20 April 2017 - Whittingdale & Murdoch plan to flog the BBC.

12 December 2015. Keep the BBC safe from the Tory government "Free Market" saboteurs.





21 Sep 2015 - Murdoch defaming the BBC - Dimbleby

21 Sep 2015 - BBC leads world broadcasting - Nordic TV




"DISMEMBER THE BBC" - UK Ministry of Kulture

Addressing exultant crowds of cheering multimedia moguls and workers and millions of British Hardworking Families, Free Market zealot, John Whittingdale OBE MP, UK Minister for Culture, who heads the extreme far-right 1922 Committee of the Tory Party, announced today that all BBC programmes - radio and television - are to be legally forced to embrace Free Market principles by including a minimum of 20 minutes of commercial advertising in every hour of broadcast.

13 April 2016 - Oh Dear! Mr Whittingdale. A media sting catches minister.

THE EVIL BBC LONDON
LAST BASTION OF COMMUNISM

"It is entirely unfair, undemocratic and anti-competitive that genuine, hardworking commercial broadcasters have to interrupt their shows with advertisements, while the BBC does not. This loophole in British broadcasting law allows the ordinary common people, who are forced to pay a tithe to the BBC under threat of death, to avoid fully engaging with the consumer service society, which is the lifeblood of this great nation."

Whittingdale complained that it is unsurprising that advert free shows such as the globally popular BBC Strictly Come Dancing outshine all competing shows from commercially constrained media; who undoubtedly thought of such formats first - because Free Market organisations are of course infinitely more creative than quasi-civil-servant types at the BBC - but the immensely talented free commercial artists were prevented by mystical and mysterious market forces from developing their ideas.

Whittingdale, tightly clasping the expensive hand of The BBC Trust Chairwoman, Rona Fairhead, HSBC's part-time £500K per year Head of Audit and Swiss-Mexican-tax-evasion-and-drug-money-laundering Watchdog, continued "Your government will henceforth ensure that every UK Subject, every man, woman and child, will find no escape from their duty to hear, watch and absorb the vital messages emanating freely from this nation's and the free world's greatest businesses."

FAIRHEAD "I'M NOT PAID ENOUGH  BY HSBC
TO LOOK FOR MONEY LAUNDERING."

"Rona and I, and your democratically elected government, are as one on this root and branch reform of the evil BBC socialist empire, which is an ever growing challenge to and stain on the astringent, clean and medically proven Global Free Markets. To police this new law, which takes effect immediately, we, your superior governors, have hired the services, through an offshore tax-free 50 year contract, of our very good mutual friend and long standing media mogul Rebekah Brooks, who has the full inter-galactic support of our Mighty Lord of  Media Marketing, His Free-Market Topless-Page-Three Magnificence, His Divine Holiness, Rupert Murdoch"

(Whittingdale and Fairhead here knelt and bowed their heads in reverent silent obeisance.)

WHITTINGDALE "THE BBC DOES NOT SHARE
OUR TRUE BRITISH VALUES"

The great Free-Market shining knight continued: "...Dear Rebekah, on whom The Sun never sets,  recently absolved and exonerated by the highest courts in this Free Market land, of any knowledge of The News of The World illegal phone hacking scandals, as she was clearly too busy as CEO to know what her plebeian basement underlings were doing to obtain their Free Market, socially vital, publicly necessary stories of celebrity sex lives, will henceforth have power of veto, before broadcast, of all BBC output...  All BBC lies and slanders against my Conservative Party, your laudable government, will be silenced forever! " Whittingdale paused to let the popular applause die down, then continued  "And, she will have the sole irrevocable responsibility to ensure that the 20 minutes advertising per broadcast  hour rule is strictly adhered to".

"Finally..." Whittingdale said   "...This conversion of the BBC to the Holy Free Market Religion, will free all British people from the terrible burden, borne so bravely for nearly 100 years, of the BBC Licence Fee."

Here, the crowds surged inexorably forward up Whitehall in ecstasy and carried John Whittingdale aloft, up and away to heavenly realms, reserved exclusively for noble Free Market Ideologues, where every sort of delightful advertisement will be transmitted wirelessly and unstoppably, twenty-four-seven, directly into his brain - and where every exalted member is endlessly caressed by seventy-two virtual virgins of his or her choice.