FALLON’S FALLACY

      There is a presentational trick that skilled politicians practice. It grasps that most people are more affected by the tone than the content of a speech. This is an especially important skill to have mastered when you want to want to say something controversial. Then a soft […]

WHAT’S IN A WORD?

    One of the less hysterical criticisms of Ed Miliband’s intention to freeze energy prices for 20 months has been to call it ‘unworkable’. This was the word  used by John Major when he intervened in the debate – ‘a bolt from the grey’ as one journalist called it. […]

It can’t be easy being George Monbiot

  By Jonathon Porritt  5th December 2013   This article first appeared in Jonathon Porritt’s blog and in The Ecologist The Letter referred to in this article is the one that Jonathon Porritt, Tony Juniper, Charles Secrett and I wrote to David Cameron, highlighting the key economic and political issues with pursuing a pro-nuclear […]

Magic and Misdirection

  This article first appeared in the December edition of BusinessGreen magazine                 One of the more stressful moments in Britain’s history occurred in the spring of 1940. Churchill had just become Prime Minister. Rommel’s tanks were at Calais. France was about to […]

Shooting Labour’s energy freeze fox

                    You could not make this up. In order to cut energy bills the government has just announced it will cut one of its top policies to, uh, cut energy bills. Of course, that is not what it is saying. But […]