PEDAGOGICAL DILEMMAS

PEDAGOGICAL DILEMMAS

Remarkably soft interview with EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom here. As the prelude Gavin Hewitt explains why "many people" see Schengen as a lofty EU achievement! Lovely Cecilia wants to see lots of people from North Africa come to Europe to do the jobs that Europeans just won't do. I was impressed to hear her bring climate change into her desire to incorporate Africa into the EU.

ACTIVIST JOURNALISM

Let us be clear, anything that brings to light the mistreatment of the vulnerable is to be commended. The BBC has made headlines itself today by revealing a pattern of abuse in a private nursing facility. Four people have been arrested as a consequence. Good - that's how it should be. Can we look forward to similar undercover investigations into NHS facilities?

CLOWN PRINCE

Richard Black seems hell bent on telling us that the oceans are turning acid. Two days ago, he posted this, and now, today, he's added this - he faithfully and uncritically recycles alarmist predictions that clownfish are going to choke to death because of rising CO2. These clown researchers are being paid to find problems like this, and they do so, using their ju-ju models that predict doom on every level. Other more rational and less politically motivated souls look coolly and calmly at the evidence. First, rising carbon dioxide levels are good for us and good for the planet because the trace gas enhances plant growth. This is a long report, but well worth a read. Second, the measurement of ocean "acidification" (whatever Mr Black chooses to call this process) does not support the idea of catastrophic change, even on IPCC projections - it only happens in laboratories deliberately set up to pander to alarmist fantasies. And third, even if there is significant change, there is abundant evidence that life on coral reefs adapts to the changed ecology. Mr Black is clearly impervious to any contrary facts, is determined to maintain an alarmist paradigm and selectively ignores evidence that does not accord with his own extreme political views. My observations about him are repetitious because he is manically repetitious. But I will not let go because it is a disgrace that our money is being used to support him in his deliberately one-sided campaign.

ON THE BALL....

>> TUESDAY, MAY 31, 2011

I was listening to a "debate" on the FIFA scandal on the BBC this morning (it was on "Today" close to 9am and Barry Hearn was one of the interviewees but there is no link to share with you) and I heard the BBC presenter Evan Davies make the remarkable suggestion that given the concerns expressed regarding the integrity of FIFA, perhaps the UN or EU should be invited in to run it. Great idea! After all, the EU is renowned for its financial transparency and we all know that the UN is the world's highest moral guardian. You can always rely on the BBC to argue for one world governance but this one amused me given just how mad the suggestion is. Maybe Dominique Strauss Kahn could fill the supranational role the BBC suggests, I hear he is going to be at a bit of a loose end?