UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from FaithWorld:
Climate change debate spurs warm feelings in London
It is rare that religion and science find agreement, but that is what happened when Britain's Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks spoke at a meeting on saving the earth from climate change.
"The great Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson published a book in 2007 called "Creation", subtitled An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," Sacks told leaders of all the major faiths meeting at Lambeth Palace in London on Thursday. (Photo: A partially dried reservoir in Yingtan, Jiangxi province, China, 29 Oct 2009/stringer)
"I thought that was a very good book. E.O. Wilson is known not to be religious, but what this book was was a call to religious people and scientists to call off the war between religion and science and work together for the sake of the future of life on earth.
"And I felt that was a very generous and appropriate call by a non-religious scientist."
What do you think of Michael Jackson’s single “This Is It”?
Michael Jackson’s posthumous new single, “This Is It” began streaming online and playing on radio stations on Monday. The singer died four months ago from a prescription drugs overdose at age 50.
A series of 50 concerts scheduled at London’s 02 Arena from July 2009 through March 2010 was also entitled “This Is It”.
Making heavy weather over Scotland
Anyone listening to the BBC radio weather forecast this morning on the first day of Autumn will have come away with a detailed knowledge of how things look likely to pan out in Scotland – heavy winds apparently and not at all a day for going out walking on the hills.
They will also have probably had more than they need about Northern Ireland, with its endless bands of rain.
Minister warns against “contaminating” 2012 Olympics
Clerics and police have expressed concern, and now the Olympics minister has – London could see a proliferation in prostitution and human trafficking during the 2012 Games.
Some have warned the Olympics could see a repeat of the ”mega brothels” set up in German cities for the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
from Commentaries:
Turner is right to take on swollen banks
So the watchdog can bark after all. Adair Turner, chairman of Britain's Financial Services Authority, says the financial sector has "swollen beyond its socially useful size". That is a striking statement for any financial regulator, particularly one that counts promoting London's financial centre as one of its goals. Identifying the problem, however, is the easy bit. Reversing decades of financial expansion will require global agreement on tough new rules, and the determination to make sure they are consistently enforced.
Turner's comments, in a debate hosted by Prospect magazine, underscore the extent to which the crisis has upended the received wisdom among policymakers. For years they assumed markets were self-correcting, that financial innovation brought lasting economic benefits, and that regulators should think twice before getting in the way.
from The Great Debate UK:
Government must deliver on Olympic legacy promise
- Hugh Robertson is the opposition Conservatives' Olympics spokesman. The views expressed are his own. -
With three years to go, it is remarkable that London 2012 is going so well.
London’s Olympics were launched with a massive government miscalculation that resulted in the budget having to be increased threefold, were based on a plan that required us to build two Terminal 5s in half the time and have had to contend with the worst economic recession in living memory.
Whose art would you forge?
“Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries,” an exhibition slated to go on show next summer at the National Gallery in London, will celebrate copies of works done by students of the great masters.
The exhibition ties in with recent forays by the gallery into boosting its reproduction of art online via a new iPhone application and a relaunch of its website, which allows access to its entire collection.
Would you exchange your Michael Jackson O2 tickets?
More than 50 million pounds worth of tickets were sold to see Michael Jackson perform at London’s O2 Arena where he was scheduled for a series of 50 concerts before his death.
The King of Pop’s run at the O2, scheduled to kick off in July, would have been the highest-grossing single concert engagement.
from Commentaries:
Water down the tube in London heatwave
London's transport bosses are telling travellers on the tube system to beat the heat by carrying a bottle of water with them when they venture underground.
But how many of us are refilling our bottles with tap water rather than pouring money down the tube -- not to mention the cost of recycling the plastic bottles -- by buying a new bottle of water each day?
from Global News Journal:
Germany’s Finance Minister takes aim at the City
Has German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck finally said what many world leaders think but are afraid to say? That the British government won't sign up to meaningful reform of financial markets because it is too worried about what it would mean for the country’s most famous cash cow, the City of London.
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The City, which accounts for around 35 percent of global foreign exchange turnover, has been a popular target for critics of capitalism for years. But it has rarely been singled out so bluntly as a problem by one of Britain’s close allies.
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The Wall
