Isn't it mild at the moment? Is the climate changing?

What unseasonably mild weather we are having. Perhaps there is something in this climate change malarkey, but I’m not really convinced despite the fact that David Attenborough (who is God in human form) says there is.

The weather all over the place seems to be peculiar. Only a couple of weeks ago, the alpine countries were complaining of a lack of snow. Now, some parts of Austria have had five metres of snow in one week, more than they would normally expect in a whole season. Villages are cut off and there is a real danger of avalanche. Loads of foreign skiers are marooned and can’t get home (shame, poor rich bastards).

Meanwhile, some parts of Europe are really warm for January and all the spring plants have started to blossom already. One cold snap now and the blossom will die, along with it all next season’s fruit as nothing will have matured enough.

Personally, I’d quite like to live in 30 degrees of sunshine all the time. I love wandering around in swimsuit and sarong (quite a sight, I can tell you) and being able to go out until one or two in the morning in short sleeved tops and not be cold, or have to worry about whether it is going to rain tonight. But I do understand that not everyone is like that, and we do need the full range of climates to feed the planet and preserve some of the animals and beautiful places on it.

Yes, I’m sure that all the pollution we chuck out into the atmosphere doesn’t do it any good. All the cars, factories and so on must have an impact and change the gaseous mix up we all breathe. But I do get irritated when people lecture me for using my patio heater for one hour on perhaps two evenings a year (the rest of the time in this damp country it’s too cold to sit outside even with the heater on) or on burning my garden waste (if I take it to the tip, I’m using petrol, so which is worse?) or the various other things that the climate change lobby gets excited about.

The trouble with our approach to this is the same as with our approach to health and safety which I blogged about yesterday. We take it too far and get anal about it. Yes, we can all make a small difference but the main difference can be made by tackling the big polluters – industry being the main one. It’s the old 80/20 rule – tackle the 20% of contributors that make 80% of the impact first and leave the little man alone until later.

Instead, here in good old Blighty, we get lectured in the press and by the government about what we are doing wrong instead of, for instance, tackling the supermarkets about the amount of packaging they manufacture and use. The other day I unwrapped my supermarket shop to put it all away and was left with two carrier bags full of packaging – ludicrous.

So maybe I am contributing to our planet warming up and leaving a legacy of poor air and dry parched earth for my children’s generation to deal with, but I doubt that I’m the deciding factor in the future of mankind.

Now I must go and wrap things up in plastic, bump up the heating and light a bonfire because its going to be cold tonight and we can’t have that now, can we?

To euro, or not to euro

Poor old David Cameron is getting quite a battering isn't he. It seems he can't please any of the people any of the time. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't.

Personally, and this is nothing to do with my political persuasion, I think he should be applauded for standing up for the UK's interests against the German bullies and French self servers. The treaty which was vetoed would lead to greater integration, our taxes and financial affairs decided in Brussels by a bunch of bureaucrats who know nothing about the UK and probably hate us anyway. You've only got to look at the voting patterns in the Eurovision Song contest to see how much the rest of Europe dislikes us!

Don't get me wrong. I know this is all about the banks and I'm no fan of banks and bankers. But why should a country which is doing its damndest to drag itself out of trouble and which contributes a significant amount to the EU's coffers already put its hand in its pocket again for something which has no guarantee of success and which could make it worse off in the future?

"Oh", the pro-Europeans cry, "The UK will lose out. Business will go elsewhere. We will lose our export trade because we won't be competitive".  Rubbish. The rest of Europe likes much of the UKs products because they are good quality and unique. Our financial services and the remainder of the city will survive because they have vast reserves at their disposal and widely spread interests. Yes, there'll be a dip, but trade will come back. Stop panicking!

"Stop the UK's rebate" , they are shouting in Brussels. Punish the selfish British gits! Well perhaps we ought to remove our contribution altogether, and see how they like that in France where our contributions help subsidise their farmers and cottage industries that refuse to modernise and become competitive. Maybe, just maybe, its time to see whether the benefits of pulling out and spending all those billions on ourselves outweigh the disadvantages. And as for those pro-Europeans, well if they like Europe so much, why don't they go and live there .