Thrown in with great fanfare at the end of the budget was Boy Osborne's "clever" tax on the oil industry, to finance a marginal reduction in petrol tax. But now we see the consequences of this particular piece of economic vandalism.

According to an "activity survey" by UK Oil & Gas, the tax will cost the UK £50bn and 15,000 jobs, scuppering at least 25 projects, accounting for over 1 billion barrels of oil and gas and £12 billion of investments. It will shorten the lifespans of 20 producing fields by up to five years, while investment earmarked for projects considered likely to go ahead over the next 10 years has fallen by 30 percent to £23 billion.

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Perhaps a swap with a African country would be in order ? No wait a minute they have already done that.

Last night on the BBC there was a programme about satellite archeology. Light weight BBC people presenting etc. but interesting nonetheless. At one point they were discussing an acrid desert site which was covered in tools and signs of habitation. It may well have been around 5000 years old. The presenter woman told those watching that a climate catastrophe had taken place which had replaced the farm lands with desert forcing the people to move. I'm fairly sure, although the BBC may want to correct me, that there was no coal burning, gas guzzling, industrialisation etc. way back then. Just natural change then?

On the BBC news last night a reporter talked about Germanys decision to shut down their nuclear plants. He actually suggested they would probably have to buy electricity generated by French nuclear plants or if they intended installing hundreds more windmills the countryside would be scarred by pylons etc. as well as the horrible windmills themselves. I'd imagine the poor chap will be picking up his cards this morning.

And of course David Bellamy was on the Chelsea Flower Show one evening last week!!!!

I don't normally watch the BBC or much TV for that matter. Maybe, just maybe there's a change beginning at the BBC? Maybe someone has realised that they are swimming against the tide and a re-positioning is necessary. We can but hope.

Who is going to invest the money to develop shale hydrocarbon resources here in the UK (always assuming we want to)? The small, independent operators who now make up the bulk of the North Sea operations? Hardly when they're being taxed between 65% and 80% on old platforms requiring large investment to keep going. How about the multinationals who have all but abandoned the UK? Bigger fish to fry and at a lot lower tax rates.

George Obsorne really is proving himself economically illiterate.

Just heard an item on R2 news (I was in the carbon belching car). Apparently, food prices are going to double in 20 years because of bad management, (one other reason that I have forgotten, and of course the catch all 'Climate Change'. That report that the BBC so dutifully reported was from Oxfam. No surprise there then. Nothing about 'green taxes' making fuel higher and therefore food prices higher.

What does one expect, when the governments brains trust resides in the bowels of the likes of Greenpiss.

As I am a masochist I watched the BBC doc 'Windfarm Wars' on iPlayer last night. The way the planning system has been rigged in favour of wind is atrocious. The government must only reach a target for installed capacity ie. maximum theoretical output, so the issue of whether the bloody things actually produce any power is not a 'relevant objection'. The number of jobsworths and lawyers paid by us to push this through is bloody frightening too.

In conjunction with stopping research into fusion, one might be forgiven for thinking these people want to kill us, if they were not too stupid to achieve this. Either way, should the opportunity present itself we should be happy to return the favour.

I hope I can be forgiven for thinking that, I've been saying that's the intention for enough years now!

Unfortunately, people are just not going to believe it until it actually starts happening in a more obvious way.