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Feb 03 0 comments
News Roundup

News Roundup

The Guardian continues its coverage of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes ongoing woes.

It also carries an interview with Conservative leader of Barnet Council Mike Freer and his “easyCouncil” model (as a Barnet resident, I was interested to see that my council tax was spent on clearing up all the grit on the pavement on Monday and putting back more grit on Tuesday – value for money FTW!).

The Tories have been attacked for publishing misleading crime statistics in such a way that makes a couple of cock ups by the IPCC look insignificant. Chris Grayling is unreprentent.

And finally, Gordon Brown announced a range of intended constitutional reforms yesterday in a speech to the RSA. Most of the coverage has focused on his plans for a referendum to reform the electoral system, but more radically he also announced his intention for the UK to have a written constitution by the 800th anniversary of the signing of the Magna Carta in 2015. Exciting stuff but given Brown’s track record, could he deliver?

Feb 02 0 comments
News Roundup

News Roundup

Climate change science has been dealt another blow by the revelation that University of East Anglia professor Phil Jones knowingly used flawed evidence in one of his studies.  How many more revelations like this will we have before the scientific community learn the lesson that transparency is the only way to ensure public trust?

Meanwhile, a man not especially reknowned for his valuing of science, Pope Benedict, has been condemning UK equality laws.  Some people are more equal than others in the eye of God, it would seem.

Talking of equality, Gordon Brown appears to have finally come off the fence when it comes to electoral reform.  The Alternative Vote system isn’t proportional but it would mean all MPs would have to command a majority and it would mean fewer wasted votes.  The Lib Dem response, as Stephen Tall points out, has been a “stinging welcome“.  It would appear that the government will be announcing support for a whole host of amendments to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill today, including ones regarding Lords reform and excluding non-doms from Parliament.

The latest ComRes/Independent poll confirms that the gap in support between the main parties has narrowed in recent weeks, with the public deeply confused about what passes for David Cameron’s economic policy.  Interestingly, Tory support amongst men is currently much higher than Tory support amongst women.

Feb 01 0 comments
News Roundup

News roundup

Labour is reported to be putting cooperative principles at the heart of its 2010 manifesto.  Anyone remember the third way?

Nick Clegg is spelling out today how the Liberal Democrats propose to pay for its flagship ‘pupil premium‘ policy for education.

David Cameron is continuing to confuse over both the economy and human rights.  Despite the Tory policy of making immediate cuts, we are now to understand they won’t be ’swingeing’.  Meanwhile, he has asserted that burglars lose their human rights as soon as they set foot in someone else’s property, suggesting he is not so much in support of ‘have a go heroes’ as ‘have a gimp heroes’.

Head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri’s position is looking increasingly untenable with the revelation that he sat on the discovery that one of the IPCC’s claims about melting glaciers was without foundation before the Copenhagen summit. Other claims are being disputed as well.  With the scientific community still reeling from the University of East Anglia email hacking scandal, it is clear that a concerted effort needs to be made to ensure that climate science is seen to be robust and open to scrutiny.