China and America’s joint commitment to ratify the Paris Climate Accord comes at a time when the UK’s own climate and energy policies appear at best in disarray, and worst at odds. Imagine you’re stuck in a burning building. Stay and you perish, but the complexity of...
Travelling in Europe now has a new extension to the social interactions we are used to. As well as the ill-pronounced phrases of delight at the wine/vistas/frescoes/accommodation of whichever more civilised country we happen to be in, there's now a new pantomime...
Twice in the last year or so, I’ve found myself having to intervene on the platforms of the London Underground to rescue older people from closing doors which were crushing them. On the second occasion, I was also shouted at for my pains by the platform staff for...
Click here: as the Games begin, the New Weather Institute discusses with the BBC the challenges facing Rio The Rio Olympic Games might seem one of the most troubled yet, but it’s easy to forget how dogged by controversy each Games is. Ever since Sydney in 2000, each...
What happens as large scale migration becomes inevitable due to a combination of environmental, economic and humanitarian reasons. Do we tackle the push factors and help the displaced, or worsen the conditions driving displacement, and rejecting responsibility for...
There’s been a bit of interest recently in the poor service and exploitative working conditions offered up by delivery companies. Yodel and Hermes are in the frame right now, courtesy of C4 Dispatches, The Times and The Guardian, which have put undercover reporters...
An open letter to Andrew Allner, chairman of the Go Ahead Group, ultimately responsible for the Southern Railways franchise. Dear Mr Allner I live in Sussex, the ancient kingdom of the South Saxons. I am hoping that this rings some bells in your mind. Because we...
Only a fortnight ago, and so much has happened since. I wrote an open letter to the chief executive of train operators Govia Thameslink Railway, Charles Horton, on this very website. It was read, along with another blog elsewhere, by over 100,000 people (picture above...
This has been a bit lost in the Brexit aftermath. But it is an important guide to the right-wing agenda which triumphed on 23rd June and has been gathering speed since 2010. The Land Registry, the public body which is effectively the state guarantor of land ownership...
Lindsay Mackie writes: The vote has happened. And, many millions of people voted to Leave for what they believed were good reasons, from knowledge that they, their families and neighbours and communities, were living precarious lives, subject to economic and social...