Two pieces of news today make Business Secretary John Hutton look pretty stinky on climate change. "UK civil servants from the Department of Business, enterprise and regulatory reform have a different strategy and are pushing for cuts" and "John Hutton, the Business Secretary, wants to approve the project [Kingsnorth] even if it is not chosen for an experiment in which its carbon emissions would be "captured" and stored under the sea."

However it's worth bearing in mind that with the Labour government all reading Machiavelli at the moment, the 2 stories coming out on the same day are unlikely to be a coincidence. Also note that no side of the Kingsnorth "split" is suggesting it shouldn't be built at all. 

• UK lobbying for aviation exemption
• Govt split on Kingsnorth expansion

Why the $700bn Wall Street bailout is a bad idea. Highlights:

"The Wall Street bankers, brokers and fund managers to whom I’ve been speaking for many decades all know this. That is why they pay themselves such large annual bonuses and large salaries each year. The idea is to take as much as you can. As the saying goes: “You only have to make a fortune once in a lifetime.” They have been salting away their fortunes year after year, mainly in hard assets: real estate (free of mortgages), fine furniture, boats and trophy art. One last $700 billion heist and they can make their getaway."

and this:

"But there is a great reluctance to accept the fact that debts cannot be paid. “The poor are honest,” as one banker explained to me, and believe that “a debt is a debt” and must be paid. (This is not what Donald Trump, Bear Stearns or A.I.G. believe, but they are at the top of the economic pyramid, not its base.)"