Where next for climate change ?
As regular visitors to these pages over recent months will know, it is rare for Pericles to say anything in a vehement tone.
To-day’s subject however is so important — to the well-being not only of residents of the British Isles but also to those in the far flung corners of the Earth, many of whom will have no access to a computer, many of whom will be largely illiterate — that he departs from his usual conciliatory demeanour.
To-day Pericles urges you to read Prof. Hal Lewis’s letter of resignation from the American Physical Society — an organization once thought of as amongst the greatest bodies (if not indeed the greatest) in the field of physics.
Prof. Lewis’s letter is set out in full at Pericles’s own site, together with his commentary.
Back Boris for Mayor 2012
A new website has been launched for Boris’s re-election campaign. The response so far has been great, with thousands signing up to receive campaign updates and become involved as volunteers.
See the Blog here
Boris urges Chancellor, “Explain how you will cut taxes ?”
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph to-day, reports political editor Andrew Porter, Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, expresses himself shocked by the levels of income tax, saying he never thought he would see the day when other large European countries had lower rates of personal taxation than those in Britain. He fears this high taxation is harming her competitiveness.
In the face of criticism that high taxation is harmful to Britain’s global competitiveness the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer have been vague in assuring critics of their intention to lower it ; Mr. Osborne has refused to cut the 50-per-cent. rate on highest incomes — instituted by the Labour government — despite being urged that, although it acts as a disincentive to the entrepreneurial creators of jobs and economic activity, it generates little extra revenue for the Treasury.
Democracy in cyberspace … or mob rule ?
Internet debate can be coarse
— says Boris Johnson —
but it really does hold journalists and politicians to account.
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But enough of me. Let’s talk about you. Or rather, let’s talk about the small minority of you who not only read but respond to these columns — sitting up late in America, rising early in Hong Kong. I mean the great caffeine-powered, keyboard-hammering community of online thinkers who contribute with such richness to the cyberspace jabberama.
Ed Miliband : same school ; different road
Ed (left) and David Miliband
Labour’s new leader looks like being under the thumb of the unions — harking back to the bad old days of the 1970s, says Boris Johnson.
It is an unsettling fact that I went to the same school as the party leader. Indeed, there are some people who have taken to complaining about this coincidence. They say it is unacceptable in the 21st century that so much political power should be concentrated in the old boys of one educational establishment. It is a sign, they say, that the country has failed to move on.
Both of us went to the same institution of ancient rituals and gorgeous brickwork, ideally situated by one of the nation’s most famous waterways and blessed with lush green spaces nearby. It is a forcing-house of talent, where the offspring of privilege acquire that patina of good manners, the ever so slightly infuriating habit of putting people at their ease, together with that sense of entitlement that propels them to the top and marks them out ever after as Old Primroseans.
Quotes of the week …
… ending 25th. September 2010
As he accepted the leadership of the British Labour Party at its annual conference Ed Miliband said —
“I get it and I understand the need to change. I need to unify the party and I will.”
