Rupert's Read

In breaking news this lunchtime, verdicts have come in on the Buncefield oil depot case. Buncefield (in Hertfordshire in the East of England) blew up five years ago, causing environmental damage that may well last for generations ( http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/engineering-firm-guilty-over-buncefield-blast-2004312.html  ), and reminding us all of the terrible impact that dependence on fossil fuels inevitably has.   With the BP disaster unfolding in the U.S. at present, these verdicts in Buncefield are a powerful reminder of the dreadful damage that oil-dependence leads to. We were very lucky that no-one was killed by the immediate effects of the Buncefield explosion - but all that carbon will be in the atmosphere for generations to come, blighting the lives of people who aren't even born yet. The guilty verdicts against the companies responsible are welcome, and I hope that a significant punishment is meted out. Big companies need to k...

The Guardian University Guide for 2011 has just come out. UEA has leapt 16 places to Number 19 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2010/jun/04/university-league-tabl e which makes mine a top 20 institution. And philosophy as a subject has moved up 9 places from 23 to 14 http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/table/2010/jun/04/university-guide-philo sophy which makes mine a top 20 department. :-)

My latest article, published in Saturday's EDP: http://oneworldcolumn.blogspot.com/search/label/*%20Author%3A%20Rupert%20Read How ought we to think of our relationship to - our responsibility for - future people? Is this question (a question pressing all the harder in the wake of the recent failure to adequately safeguard those future people, at Copenhagen) essentially a question of justice ? The rallying cry at Copenhagen was, "What we do we want? Climate justice! When do we want it? Now!" But what if it's not enough to call for justice? Let me explain… Future generations – future people - are collectively our children. We give birth to them. They are even more powerless than the newest new-born baby. They cannot entreat, nor even scream, let alone return our gaze. They are dependent upon us for every aspect of their life-chances. For we cause them of course to come into being; but moreover, and ever-increasingly, we cause their conditions to be what they are, too....

  The resignation of Prof Brian Wynne last week from the Food Standards Authority due to concerns about the proposed 'dialogue' with the public and other stakeholders is highly-concerning.   In his letter of resignation from the Dialogue Steering Committee,   Professor Brian Wynne reaches the conclusion that the FSA 'is intrinsically pro-GM'   He is also critical of the dismissal of the public as 'anti-science'   when the issues around GM are much wider.   '.... even if wider positions are heard, if no one challenges the institutional dogma which afflicts FSA and it seems other government bodies, that the issues are scientific and the only perspective which can be properly used to assess these is   (so-called) 'sound science', then these wider frameworks will be doomed to dismissal before they have even been properly heard, since some of them at least are saying that a (so-called) 'sound science'   perspective cannot possibl...

Some good letters here, and then a very disturbing letter from a 'Professor David Marsland': http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/04/divide-over-israel-and-gaza Marsland apparently thinks it is OK to call for the murder of civilians on the high seas. As someone who knows personally some of the civilians in question, and thinks highly of them, I find this particularly repellent and entirely unacceptable. The mystery becomes a little clearer when one finds out more facts about Mr. Marsland. According to the fringe Libertarian group to which he belongs: 'Professor David Marsland  is Professor of Health Informatics at Brunel University. [Actually, he isn't: he is an Emeritus Professor. I.e. He is retired]. Amongst his many books are   Seeds of Bankruptcy: Sociological Bias Against Business and Freedom ,   Welfare or Welfare State: Contradictions and Dilemmas in Social Policy, Public Sector Enterprise: A Contradiction in Terms, Work and Employment in Liber...

Am I the only person wondering why, on Bird's 4 hour rampage, there was seemingly no attempt to place police-roadblocks to stop him, or at least police marksmen helicoptered in to stop him continuing to kill? Surely after the first few deaths, when police realised roughly what they had on their hands, and started telling people to keep indoors etc., they should have thrown the dice and attempted to put a swift stop to further killing by Bird.   Meanwhile: It's still pretty easy to get a gun in Britain: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7798318/Cumbria-shootings-puts-spotlight-on-Britains-gun-laws.html   http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7142983.ece  . We now know that Bird had his guns LEGALLY. It's time to ban the kind of 'sniper rifle' he apparently had, & drastically to tighten up access to shotguns. #Banthegun   What I want, is a country where the police are ready to take down lunatics with weapons, but ...

  Check this link to see Israel's tactics and that of the commandos: http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/world/2010/06/01/14210026.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter  

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/localsites/norwich/news/norwich-lib-dems.html

EMERGENCY RALLY WEDNESDAY 2nd JUNE 5.30PM OPPOSITE THE FORUM, MILLENNIUM PLAIN, NORWICH. _ISRAELI TERROR ON THE HIGH SEAS_ This action has been called by Norwich Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Norwich Stop the War Coalition and is supported by many other local organisations. There will be speakers from these organisations at the protest. Among the speakers will be Peter Offord, President of Norwich Stop the War Coalition and a Green councillor, who visited Gaza in December and January 2010 on the anniversary of the attack on the Gaza Strip. Many of the aid workers attacked early this morning were people Peter met on that visit. PLEASE MAKE EVERY EFFORT TO ATTEND THIS EVENT.     ...I'll be there - hope to see you there...

..is from Caroline Lucas & me on the Gaza flotilla atrocity: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/01/attack-on-gaza-aid-flotilla Also signed by Keith Taylor MEP (oh happy acronym!) and our feisty new Cambridge Councillor, Adam Pogonowski.

What is hilarious - and sickening - is the Israeli army/government's apparent belief that they had the right to board these ships - in international waters - with there being no resistance to them whatsoever to them doing so. Did they expect to be welcomed with bouquets of flowers?? It is mad that military ATTACKERS on an aid convoy can present themselves as if they are the victims! Let's remember: they killed at least 10 of the humanitarian activists. While none of _them_ were killed. They are not the victims here! We know who are... My thoughts are with the victims of this atrocity. And with the people, some of whom (such as the excellent Ewa Jasiewicz) I know personally, good good people, now languishing in Israeli jails. How disgraceful, how upside-down this world is: the peace activists trying to bust Israel's illegal blockade have been jailed, while the killers are probably being patted on the back right now...