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Blog... Our 'Net Zero' Choice: Back To The Stone-Age Or Embrace Capitalism

Blog… Our ‘Net Zero’ Choice: Back To The Stone-Age Or Embrace Capitalism

Back in the 1970s, experts scared us as we grew up, with warnings about nuclear war, global famine due to over-population and, I kid you not, an imminent new ice age.

These days, the experts are scaring the kids about the threat posed by a different kind of climate change, warning of a dire future in a world that is slowly being made uninhabitable thanks to our emissions of carbon dioxide and…

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Blog: Forty Years On We Need A New Thatcher

Blog: Forty Years On We Need A New Thatcher

Forty years ago this week Margaret Thatcher swept to power as Britain’s prime minister. Photo credit: Williams, U.S. Military [Public domain]

Love her or loathe her, those of us who remember life under Margaret Thatcher’s premiership could probably agree on one thing: if she was in charge today, then Britain would not be in its current predicament.

It is 40 years ago this week that Margaret…

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A confirmatory vote would snooker Brexit - Should we boycott such a ballot?

A confirmatory vote would snooker Brexit – Should we boycott such a ballot?

A confirmatory referendum offering a choice between the Remain-lite a deal and Remain is no choice at all…

Prime Minister Theresa May’s pivot towards Labour means that, like it or not, the probability of another referendum on Brexit has increased in the last few days. How should Brexit supporters respond to such a vote?

Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage spoke for many last week at the Leave Means…

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It’s about far more than Brexit… Our democracy is at stake

It’s about far more than Brexit… Our democracy is at stake

Promises, promises…From the Government’s official leaflet for the 2016 referendum

Today – Friday 29 March 2019 – was to have been Brexit Day but it may instead herald a dark time for democracy in our country.

We had been scheduled to leave the European Union (EU) at 11pm this evening. That is, until last week when Prime Minister Theresa May was ordered by Parliament to seek from the EU a delay to…

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Blog: A Positive Economic Case For Brexit: Britain Could Be A Hong Kong To Europe

Blog: A Positive Economic Case For Brexit: Britain Could Be A Hong Kong To Europe

There is a positive vision for Britain outside of the European Union. But we have yet to hear it… Britain’s future outside of the European Union (EU) could be bright and prosperous although you would not believe it from listening to the official Vote Leave campaign. An entrepreneurial, deregulated, low-tax Britain sitting off the coast of the Continent would attract foreign investors and skilled…

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Blog: Experiment Confirms Quantum Weirdness

Blog: Experiment Confirms Quantum Weirdness

Breakthrough! The campus of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands where this landmark experiment was conducted showing the locations of equipment housing two spacialy separated electrons 1.3km apart (on either side of the image) together with an intermediate measurement station. The light shows the path taken by the photons that were used to create the quantum entanglement link…

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Blog: Beware Sugar Taxes And The Law Of Unintended Consequences

Blog: Beware Sugar Taxes And The Law Of Unintended Consequences

Sugar is bad for our health. Sugar taxes may be worse. Image courtesy: Diabetes.co.uk. Health campaigners lobbying for the introduction of a tax on sugary foods and drinks would do well to consider the lessons of the Volkswagen emissions scandal. Well meaning measures to protect the planet from climate change resulted in European Union (EU) governments encouraging a major switch from petrol to…

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Blog: Is This How The Third World War Begins?

Blog: Is This How The Third World War Begins?

A Russian MiG-29. Courtesy: Wikimedia Commons News that Russian fighters have violated Turkish airspace increases tensions in the Middle East. More worryingly, it raises the possibility of a dogfight in the skies over Turkey. Now, this matters because Turkey – like Britain, the US and 25 other nations – is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) which is a collective defence…

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Blog: If Miliband Thinks Profit Is A Dirty Word Then Britain Is In Trouble

Blog: If Miliband Thinks Profit Is A Dirty Word Then Britain Is In Trouble

Ed Miliband seems to think profit is a dirty word… Image courtesy BBC

As Britain’s general election campaign gets under way, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has made a populist pledge that sets a depressing tone for the battle to come.

Miliband has promised to cap the profits that can be made by private companies dealing with Britain’s monopolist, state-owned, state-managed, health care provider…

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Time For Europe's Politicians To Face The Truth: The Euro Is A Recession Machine

Time For Europe’s Politicians To Face The Truth: The Euro Is A Recession Machine

Image courtesy: Channel 4

News this week that deflation is stalking the eurozone while political uncertainty in Greece is undermining confidence in the single currency comes as the iron grip of austerity continues to throttle the economies of southern Europe.

A quick look at data from Eurostat – the European Commission’s central statistical organisation – tells you all you need to know about the…

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If There's Life On Mars Why Have We Not Heard From ET?

If There’s Life On Mars Why Have We Not Heard From ET?

Artist’s impression of the Curiosity Rover on Mars. In a paper published in the journal Science on 16 December 2014 NASA scientists revealed that this robot explorer has detected variable amounts of methane in the Martian atmosphere – a possible hint that life may be present. Courtesy: NASA/JPL

NASA’s revelation that Mars burps methane gas has renewed speculation over the possibility that life…

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Blog: Private Enterprise Will Deliver Humanity's Future In Space

Blog: Private Enterprise Will Deliver Humanity’s Future In Space

Wreckage from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave desert following the crash on 31 October 2014. Courtesy: CNN

Tragedy struck billionaire Sir Richard Branson’s space business last month with the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane leaving one pilot dead and another injured.

This was the second space disaster in less than a week to hit the private sector space industry…

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Blog: Fingers Crossed As Massive Sun Spot Points At Earth

Blog: Fingers Crossed As Massive Sun Spot Points At Earth

This is the sun as it is was just before this blog was posted. You can see the huge sunspot just below and slightly to the left of the centre of disk. Active Region 12192, as it is known has caused US scientists to declare a “Major Flare Watch” alert.  The image is from NASA’s Solar Dynamics Laboratory spacecraft with its Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) instrument. Courtesy: NASA.

  Keep your…

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Ebola: The Nightmare Scenario Of A New Black Death

Ebola: The Nightmare Scenario Of A New Black Death

Created by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) microbiologist Frederick Murphy, this artificially coloured transmission electron micrograph (TEM) image reveals some of the structure displayed by an Ebola virus. Courtesy: CDC/ Frederick A. Murphy

With transmission of the deadly Ebola occurring outside of west Africa, the world is belatedly waking up to the very real risks posed to…

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Blog: Diet Foods Make You Fat: Research Shows Artificial Sweeteners Can Trigger Illness, Diabetes And Obesity

Blog: Diet Foods Make You Fat: Research Shows Artificial Sweeteners Can Trigger Illness, Diabetes And Obesity

Diet foods and drinks can cause illness, diabetes and obesity, according to major new research published tomorrow (Thursday 18 September 2014) in the leading science journal Nature.

Experiments on mice and humans have shown that artificial sweeteners change the make-up and behaviour of bacteria in the gut resulting in raised blood sugar levels. This is a key factor in the development of type 2…

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Blog: Record CO2 Levels Reported As Global Warming Pause Reaches 19 Years

Blog: Record CO2 Levels Reported As Global Warming Pause Reaches 19 Years

The long term remorseless rise in atmospheric CO2. This has been rising consistently throughout the whole period of the global warming pause raising questions about the nature of the link between CO2 and climate change. Courtesy: NOAA and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

Today the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that in 2013 the atmospheric concentration of carbon…

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