"Net zero seems to be the new socialism.....".

Let's call it what it is - communism. 'Communism never goes away, it just changes its coat'.

That's right ttbn, Karl Marx was very big on 'NET ZERO' he was constantly jabbering on about it. Are you that thick that you equate anything and everything you don't agree with as being Communism.

Hi Paul,

I think that net zero builds on the narrative that capitalism is inherently bad and needs radical change. With net zero the uncaring western bourgeois are living it up on evil fossil fuels, in the process destroying the earth. Of course, all the undeveloped nations will be rendered wastelands first. Further, there are throwbacks to Pol Pot, with the suggestion that the west should abandon its evil ways and return to the simple life. And Heaven forbid that we should ever develop nuclear energy or mess with the Earth any further with evil geoengineering. As an example, I listened to a talk recently about how sulphate aerosols could be used to stop polar warming using fewer than 150 aircraft. The process can quickly be reversed should it not work or have problems, yet many of the comments pushed the line that it was fundamentally wrong to "mess with the planet". Can somebody please tell that to the bacteria as their irresponsible behaviour over the past four billion odd years has stopped the Earth from becoming another wonderful Venus?

Hi Fester,

"net zero builds on the narrative that capitalism is inherently bad and needs radical change", that's not something I agree with, its nothing more than an extrapolation by the extreme to support their political ideology, one way or the other. I prefer to accept the overwhelming science which concludes climate change, which is no longer in reality debatable, no more than smoking is go for you can be debated. Rapid climate change is the product of mans industrialisation and the burning of fossil fuels over a short period of time is a substantial contributor to climate change. Nothing more, nothing less, not Capitalism or Communism or any other ism, it would have happened under all isms.

"That is right, by 2025."

Thanks for that SR. Now it makes perfect sense.

Electricity prices rise by 25% in 2022.
Electricity prices rise by 35% in 2023.
Electricity prices rise by think-of-a-number-and-double-it% in 2024.

Then in 2025, miraculously the prices will fall by a kajillion-bazillion percent ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1z-AxgueBRk).

Of course, it might be that the ALP so badly disrupts the economy that power prices fall due to collapse in demand. Maybe that's what they meant.

So, we can evaluate their promise at the end of 2025.

On a totally unrelated note, the next election is due early 2025. Mere coincidence, I'm sure.

Paul writes: "Did Hitler and Mussolini respect democracy when they assumed power...?"

Well no, but they didn't respect it before they came to power either.

Funny how, whenever Paul talks about the evils of authoritarianism, its always the fascists he mentions. Never Stalin, Mao, Ho, Pol Pot etc. But then for Paul, they were heroes, not dictators.

Still Hitler/Mussolini were also fellow travellers being socialists as well. Did Paul forget I taught him that earlier in the year?

So Paul isn't projecting - he thinks. Its just that those he hates are extremists. Quite what is extremists about them is unclear and unsaid. I guess just disagreeing with the far left is an extremist position.