Today is a month exactly from the UK general election as well as the last day of the G20 summit in Hamburg. Michael Gove is a UK politician who was not expecting to return to the cabinet after his sacking last year. The Blob is a 1958 American science-fiction horror film, according to Wikipedia. And … Continue reading
Author Archives: Richard Drake
Gove meets Trump
A day before his inauguration I thought it’d be good to take a fairly lighthearted look at the president-elect, as seen by the UK’s archetypal political egghead, Michael Gove, together with Kai Diekmann from Bild, on Sunday. The charm of being there This is from the full transcript of the interview (sadly, as with the … Continue reading
Memories 1975-2016, 1917-2017
This is part personal highlights of 2016, and the first few days of 2017, part leftovers of my narrower Christmas Eve post. It looks back, just a little, in the hope of historical perspective. It also covers one foreign policy issue with profound links to so-called climate policy. Whatever else, there’s some recommended reading. It … Continue reading
Two views of good science
In this message for Christmas 2016 we go back seven years. Once we’ve taken a look at our two protagonists it’s likely to get us into matters of history, science and philosophy going back a hundred, then an odd reflection at the end of a far-from-normal year in the new century. London newspaper-wise we’re talking … Continue reading
Trump and the impact of social media
In her excellent summary of the lessons of Donald Trump’s victory in the US election that morning, on 9th November 2016, Judith Curry wrote: Apart from the obvious political/policy implications of the election, there are massive social implications: • a triumph for U.S. democracy, in spite of those that have tried to break it … • … Continue reading
Alick Dowling, sceptic 1920-2016
It has to be admitted it would seem unlikely that this 95-year-old retired GP would be the first climate sceptic to be honoured by this blog in the week of his passing. As will I hope become clear, I have my reasons. To make it odder, I only met Alick, briefly, in the last three … Continue reading
David Rose, man of the people
David Rose has published evidence in today’s Mail on Sunday of gross malpractice by Lord Stern’s Centre for Climate Change Economics and Policy in passing off the work of other scholars as their own, in order to raise £9 million in government grants. Some of the morning’s tweets give the flavour: Surprising: climate change economist … Continue reading
