The fix is in

My love for Scandinavians teeters on the brink: in collusion with the UK and the US, the Danes have circulated a secret document amongst the rich nations to work from during the Copenhagen conference.

• Kyoto (the only legal agreement on climate change) to be dumped
• Poor nations to have much lower emissions allowances than rich ones (so the rich, polluting ones can carry on polluting
• Climate change to be managed via the World Bank (the rich nations' loan shark) rather than the UN
• Poor nations' environmental strategies to be dictated by the rich ones

We expect the US to resist real change: even with a centrist President, it's a country controlled by a corporate élite. The UK, outside its own borders, is well-known as a manipulative and arrogant state: ministers say cuddly things and their civil servants operate ruthlessly to benefit the UK, even at the expense of the most vulnerable. Denmark, on the other hand, has a reputation as a calm, thoughtful nation. Sure, it's not as relaxed as Sweden, but it should be on the side of the angels. Now it definitely isn't. It's lined up with the usual suspects as yet another group of rich white guys bossing the poorer and darker around.

Business as usual.

Stilig!

Things guaranteed to make me happy:
Copenhagen
Bicycles
Good photography.

So imagine my joy when Neal sent me a link which combines all three. Enjoy.

Copenhagen - the coercion starts here

When the various anti-terrorism laws were set in place, the government promised everybody that these powers were to cope with a limited, awful problem. Some idiots believed it. Perhaps one of them (though I doubt it), was Chris Kitchen, an environmentalist activist.

Amongst those with other ideas were the police, who realised that the Terrorism Act 2000 could be used to harass and obstruct anyone with whom they have an ideological disagreement. They don't need to go about the hassle of charging, court appearances, juries and all the other checks and balances which attend the prosecution of justice in a democracy.

Mr. Kitchen was on the bus to Denmark when he was hauled off it under the Terrorism Act to see whether he was a terrorist. On protesting that environmentalism isn't terrorism, the officer informed him that 'terrorism means a lot of things' - which a) isn't true and b) demonstrates the inevitable creeping use of oppressive laws to stifle citizens' freedom of movement and expression.

Sure, it's an isolated case - so far. A fair few hundred people are heading to Copenhagen, and they're not terrorists, just people who want to remind those in the motorcades and fancy hotels that more than just votes are at stake. Time for the police to remember that their duty is to the public, not to those with whom they agree.

Sometimes I even bore myself

I've been reading UBS Bank's annual Prices and Earnings report (click on the title when you get there). I've learned several things, one of which is that I can't afford to live in Oslo, the world's most expensive city. Lovely Copenhagen is out of my reach too.

However, I've also learned that transport costs in the UK are twice the European average, and 3.4 times the global average - despite the supposed competitive edge of privatisation, a compact country and a historically well-developed network. What are these bastards doing with our money? Buying yachts is my guess…