How green is your bus?

I've posted before about the Green Party obsession with public transport being a "faith based initiative" that when you look a little closer, is not that rooted in reality.

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Now according to the NZ Herald, Paul Minett of Trip Convergence Ltd, a company promoting carpooling, claims that three people travelling in a car can have a lower carbon footprint than if they travelled by bus, adding fuel to the call for the new expensive busway to be available to more vehicles. Now some of his claims involve double counting (e.g. the bus returning empty twice shouldn't be attributed to a single bus trip), but he is quite right that the claims about the low emissions of public transport over private motoring aren't as clear cut as the simple Jeanette Fitzsimons view of "bus good, car baaad".

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The government's own Surface Transport Costs and Charges study indicated that, per person, the environmental costs of buses were double that of cars in the Auckland peak period (Table 3.4A of main report). Per vehicle a bus produces 18 times the environmental impact per kilometre than a car, which tells you how many people the bus has to carry on average to be even with a car. Think about how often you see buses running with less than that number. More importantly, traffic congestion increases the environmental impact of a bus or car in the peak period in Auckland by over 200%, so that is the real enemy costing time and fuel. Yes buses are getting cleaner and greener, but then so are cars.

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So how about opening up the Northern Busway to other vehicles, with an appropriately high toll to keep it at a free flow? The other vehicles using it would save time and fuel, and there would be a few less on the parallel motorway. Oh and yes I know Transit's argument about not doing that until the Victoria Park widening project is completed - which in itself is a good reason to seriously consider tolls on the Harbour bridge and its immediate approaches to fund it.

Wellington International Airport's rock?

OK, so what the hell is THIS all about? It's creative yes but attractive? It's the design for the expansion of Wellington airport's international terminal wing (note the ambitiously hopeful thought that Singapore Airlines might decide to service Wellington, hmmm).

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On the outside it looks out of place, bizarre even, on the inside it looks like you're sitting in a cave. Yes I know there is a desire to make an impact, and most airport terminals are "the same", but hold on a second. The main impact I get is "it's not like an airport, but I could get lost inside this".

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At one point the worst thing about Wellington airport was the old Air NZ domestic terminal, which is now long gone with the new terminal which is reasonably functional and quite pleasant to use. There is a need to expand some capacity at the international wing, mainly because typically 3 or 4 flights arrive and depart within three slots of an early AM peak, mid afternoon and late evening. However, I don't know if this design is quite right. Nevertheless it will make the airport environment less clinical and if it provide enough space for three times the expected passengers it WILL be comfortable. You see the best airports are the ones that don't seem packed, but can take you, with room for your bags, and a friend to spread out, and let you know when you need to know, when to board. It's nice to have that without lounge access! I'm unsure if this design makes it easy to use, imagine running to a flight through this, you don't have a clear sight to a gate and where to go, and what to avoid. Interesting to see what views others have, especially Not PC.

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Eye of the Fish has more comments and TV3 has a fly through video of the terminal.

Hope for Cuba?

Following Castro's surprisingly short statement of resignation, President Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown have both called for Cuba to transition towards liberal democracy. Bush said:

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"Eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections, and I mean free and I mean fair, not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as being true democracy,"

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I would hope those of the liberal left might actually agree with Bush, for once. Just on that point, go on, show you DO actually believe in liberal democracy. After all according to Cuba's official mouthpiece "45 years have passed and the overwhelming majority of Cubans remain unyielding in their support of the Revolution and the undisputed and reinvigorated leadership of Fidel Castro” so why fear elections and free speech?

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The so called "genocidal war" of the economic embargo might end then, although I would have thought the embargo, as an anti-globalisation measure, should be welcomed by socialists. Why would they want to trade with the great capitalist enemy?

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Meanwhile, the truth of Cuban socialism is, like that of almost all dictatorships, opulence for the rulers. Castro's life of luxury is reported in the Daily Telegraph, as evidence from videotapes smuggled out by an ex.girlfriend of one of Castro's sons shows:

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"The series, titled The Secret life of Fidel Castro, depicts his main residential compound, Punto Cero, or Point Zero, in western Havana. Monday's episode showed Mr Castro dressed casually before a banquet, inspecting the elaborate dinnerware on the dinner table, his grandchildren playing with relatives and Antonio zooming along the patio on an electric scooter. It pictures the spacious compound and carefully landscaped garden and reveals that many of the family are wearing designer clothes. The house is decorated with wooden chests and Cuban handicrafts. A large-screen television monitors foreign news channels."

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Of course it is neither here nor there for Castro's sycophants that he has what he denies fellow Cubans - access to free media.

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So who are his sycophants?

Top of my list is London Mayor, Ken Livingstone, great friend of Cuban authoritarian one party rule. Ken Livingstone loves Castro.

However add to that list George Galloway (mate of dictators far and wide), Naomi Campbell (brainless without beauty), Steven Spielberg (though he isn't keen on Castro's mates in Beijing), Oliver Stone (why doesn't he move there?) and Diego Maradona (he has a tattoo of the thug).

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The Independent has an excellent although lengthy entry outlining many bits of information about Cuba.

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So what might Cubans hope for?

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Access to the internet, since it has been illegal since 2004 for private citizens to access it.

Mobile phones or computers, since it is illegal to own those without government permission (which is not common).

Red Cross access to prisons, which Cuba denies.

The end to imprisonment for "likelihood of committing a crime".

The end to imprisonment of journalists for criticising the regime.

Freedom of movement (the right to leave Cuba).

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Let's hope 2008 is the year all of the above is granted to Cubans.

Fidel Castro resigns

Good for Cuba, perhaps. Like some other authoritarian criminal states (Syria, North Korea), the principle for power is nepotism - something that the sycophants of Cuba, like Ken Livingstone and Matt Robson, might reflect on.
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I hoped he'd die before an orderly transition of power, but it is difficult to tell whether his brother will make radical reforms - opening up a system of oppression to free speech, and allow people to get on with their lives without the state crushing them. Raul has a few months to prove himself.
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You might read how Cuba treats political dissidents to see how good to the people it is, and you might look twice at its official health statistics on child mortality and life expectancy - given that authoritarian regimes are not very reliable on telling the truth.
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Let's hope Raul opens up the mental hospitals and prisons to the political prisoners, allows a free press and radio, and starts granting Cubans individual rights. He might start finding that if he holds free and fair elections, US sanctions would evaporate.
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However, somehow, I don't think many of Cuba's supporters really want that.

So I own a bank, well..

My taxes get to pay for the losses and guarantee the operation of the bank, but I don't get a dividend if it makes a profit (there is no hope in hell that Labour would cut the top tax rate). Worse of all, if it keeps losing money, I keep having to pay for it, but I can't sell my "shares" in it.

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I don't even use it.

Thanks to Alastair Darling.

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Should Northern Rock been allowed to fail? Well, sad to say for all of those with accounts in the bank - yes. Your investment in Northern Rock is not a risk I should have to bear. I don't expect you to bear my risk in spreading my money among four different banks, people with shares don't expect everyone else to cover the loss of any capital value.

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Yes the government guarantee of deposits was the start, the start of the state bearing the losses, the state being the bank of last resort. Now the nationalisation is more like being put in administration, which is pretty much what would have happened anyway - although it may have been a little more brutal for depositors.

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It might not all be bad, according to the Daily Telegraph the UK government may yet make money out of it but...

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"Now that the company is part of the public sector this profit, which will come from selling off its mortgage book, could help improve the public finances, reducing the need for future tax increases. However, in order for the bank to turn in a profit, it will have to be managed well. This means jobs will have to be cut, and the homes of those Rock customers who can't keep up their repayments will have to be repossessed. To the horror of Whitehall, it is now faced with the prospect of doing all this dirty work itself. Taxpayers must hope it has the stomach to do so."

Indeed, I can only hope that it does. A nationalised bank that acts commercially, hmmm. According to Shadow Chancellor George Osborne addressing the Chancellor of the Exchequer:

"You are introducing unprecedented, sweeping, draconian powers that will let you nationalise any other bank or deposit-taking institution in Britain by ministerial fiat. That is something not even Michael Foot dreamt of and it will create further uncertainly in financial markets and do further damage to Britain's reputation"

That in itself is disturbing, and perhaps the only thing saving the reputation is the impression that Gordon Brown himself is really behind this, and he is no Michael Foot. I can only hope the damned thing can be privatised and the relevant legislation repealed.