Hall's art package and the closure of BBC3 - risk alienating the young but could make some old friends happier
After a week of unexpected and uncharacteristic wobbling in the face of the campaign to decriminalise licence fee evasion, BBC director general Tony Hall was back on the front foot in no time announcing "the biggest arts push in a generation". It is a subject close to his heart after all he returned to the BBC a year ago after more than a decade at the Royal Opera House and having overseen the Cultural Olympiad. In a speech to assembled arts-world worthies, Hall promised among other things a new arts strand BBC Arts At to bring greater prominence to events and performances (many of which the BBC already covers); a remake of Kenneth Clark's landmark 1969 series Civilisation; a new arts space on iPlayer; an increase in the television arts budget of £2.75m; and a new "director of arts" to "join up" output across the whole BBC.
Looked at dispassionately, the package is one that might well improve the visibility and accessibility of BBC arts coverage of which there is already probably more than many people realise. It contains very little new money, though, and with no budget or commissioning power the new director of arts could struggle to make an appreciable impact on ratings-driven channel controllers and commissioners. But in truth that might not matter much if other aspects of what Hall said go on to have the desired effect.
Westminster's parade of day-trippers fail to grasp that devolution is not a destination but a process
They don't know whodunnit. But they sure as hell know what he done. By suggesting a post-independence currency union was still on the table, the anonymous coalition mole who spoke to the Guardian on Friday has burrowed deep into the already shaky confidence of Better Together.
Deep enough for the Scotland secretary, Alistair Carmichael, the Lib Dems' Dr No, to warn colleagues that the yes campaign was gathering momentum. You know things are serious when John Major is being winkled out to embark on a tartan charm offensive. Not to mention a brigade of northern English MPs being dispatched across the border to tell Scots they love them really. No really.
The maverick scientist on the advantages of nuclear power, Fukushima meltdown 'lies' and how humans could become robo-people
James Lovelock lives with his wife, Sandy, in an old coastguard's cottage less than 100 metres from Chesil beach in Dorset. To reach it, you have to drive along a rough, mile-long road, which in stretches has collapsed because of the winter storms that pounded the shingle spit. You must have had a devastating winter, I say when I eventually find the cottage. Not devastating, he insists, despite having been cut off by floods for four days, fascinating. Which sums up Jim Lovelock perfectly. The inventor/scientist/environmentalist is captivated by and curious about everything, which is why at 94 he radiates joie de vivre. He is the youngest 94-year-old you could ever hope to meet.
His new book, A Rough Ride to the Future, is part memoir of his long life in science and part prediction of whether humankind can survive. I had intended to ask him whether it was a final testament, but the question dies in my throat. He so obviously doesn't plan his life that way. He has mastered the art of getting old by not giving it a moment's thought.
After a taxi crashed into his hotel room, doctors said that DJ Jonathan Toubin had sustained more injuries than they had ever seen on one person. Now he's back behind the decks
A few weeks ago, Jonathan Toubin a renowned New York DJ popped a little glass nugget out of his leg while he was taking a bath. It had been lodged in his thigh muscle for over two years, following a freak accident in which a taxi crashed through the wall of a hotel room in Portland, Oregon and crushed him while he slept. "I've had hundreds of fragments, from little slivers to big chunks that were surgically removed one was as big as a small marble," he says. The jagged end of the piece in question had started poking out a month or so previously, "so I started trying to pull it out with tweezers. It eventually got so far out that you could move it around, but it was surrounded by scar tissue and skin, and its time had not yet come."
Since the accident, Toubin has become a master of Zen-like forbearance. The doctors who treated him in an intensive care unit in Portland told him that he had sustained the biggest combination of injuries they had ever tackled on one body.
A trove of 2,500 photographs taken by Christina Broom, the UK's first female press photographer, is on show at museum
The grinning young officer with the thick spectacles is called Jack, and it was because of his terrible eyesight that his father had to pull strings to get him into the army and out to the western front. A year after the image was taken he was dead at the Battle of Loos.
The father in question was Rudyard Kipling who, as is well known, was wracked with guilt over the death, writing about it in his poem My Boy Jack.
The current affairs show is scrutinising the political record of Lutfur Rahman and other directly elected town hall chiefs
Two things are always said about the London borough of Tower Hamlets. One, that it's a place of extreme contrasts, from the historic East End to the shimmering banker megaliths of Canary Wharf, and two, that its politics are vicious. Both are true.
At the centre of all this stands Lutfur Rahman, the borough's first executive mayor and the country's most controversial local authority leader. Rahman attracts a lot of media attention; not least on Monday evening, when the BBC's Panorama programme will examine his record and those of other directly elected town hall chiefs.
World Service boss on financial pressure, selling ads, transmitting news via brainwaves, and Newsnight's 'brio'
Peter Horrocks is almost certainly the only BBC executive to have broken into song on a Ghanaian TV chatshow. The man in charge of the World Service had been invited onto "Ghana's equivalent of Jonathan Ross" when a member of his team let slip his penchant for music ranging from Jersey Boys tunes to Bach's St Matthew Passion. "They said, will you sing something, and the band started to strike up," remembers Horrocks. "I hadn't prepared so I made something up, a spontaneous rappy kind of rhyme about being in Ghana."
From tomorrow, the World Service will be singing a different tune when the BBC takes on responsibility for funding the global broadcaster, which was previously bankrolled by the Foreign Office a switch born out of the controversial licence fee settlement in 2010 when it was handed a number of new financial burdens including the World Service. It is not the only revolution being overseen by Horrocks, the 54-year-old former editor of Newsnight and Panorama, as his organisation is about to become the first BBC licence fee-funded operation to take advertising and sponsorship. Both changes have proved contentious.
Look at the Twitter feed (@OC) of Christian O'Connell, the much-garlanded Absolute Radio breakfast host, and you'll find its backdrop is the poster for his sporadic stand-up "tour", with the obligatory quotes from the Observer ("hilarious") and Guardian ("furiously funny"). What he may not have reckoned with, though, is that the provenance of such praise can now be easily identified, and it only takes a few clicks to discover that neither seems to concern his abilities as a comic. Far from describing O'Connell at all, indeed, the "hilarious" appears to come from a 2008 radio review mentioning one of his sidekicks dressing up in drag; while the Guardian quote is from sepia-tinted 2005 and evoked his style as a DJ on Xfm, when he was younger and hungrier a touch tragically, though some might find it endearing, it's about him almost 10 years ago.
Further examples of "Real W1A" were not hard to find last week, as if toilers in New Broadcasting House are using the sitcom as a kind of manual rather than a wake-up call. There was the timing of the news of the axing of BBC4's (formerly BBC2's) The Review Show, just two days after director general Tony Hall summoned the media to rejoice as he announced a raft of initiatives amounting to "the biggest arts push for a generation". And Monkey hears of an in-house seminar where the World Service was being discussed, and "amoebas" squishy shapes mapping its performance according to various criteria were used in a presentation to demonstrate its value. To be fair, though, the insider audience made clear they found the amoebas baffling (in W1A such surrealism would have been treated as perfectly normal), and suggested they should be renamed butterflies "before it goes public".
It is time to salute unreservedly tennis's greatest warrior-queen, now 32 and with 17 grand slam singles titles to her name
The victory boogie started after Serena Williams had struck a second serve that swirled and dipped and then leapt like untamed fire. There were hands raised, bunny hops, a twirl as if examining a new dress in a mirror and then a smile as wide as the gorge between Williams and the rest of the women's tour.
We have seen variations of that dance against Li Na in Miami on Saturday many times before. On 59 occasions, in fact, after every one of her tournament victories.
My friend Roger Pomphrey, who has died of liver cancer aged 60, was a prolific documentary film and video director and an exceptional blues guitarist who was in the original lineup of Eurythmics. Known to all as "Dodge", he made more than 400 films, TV programmes and music videos featuring many of the biggest names in rock and pop.
Among his triumphs, Roger directed what many aficionados regard as the finest film about Jimi Hendrix, Electric Ladyland (1997), which looked at the creation of Hendrix's seminal album of that name. He also directed The Alchemists of Sound (2003), a documentary about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and Who the Hell Is Pete Doherty? (2005), which portrayed the chaos surrounding the controversial Babyshambles singer. Beyond the Groove (1990), a film series for Channel 4, featured Tom Petty, Dr John, the Womack family and Harry Dean Stanton.
Liverpool are top of the Premier league table after swatting Spurs aside at Anfield
...
90+3 min Surely Everton, former Cup Winners' Cup winners, are better than "We're all going on a European tour"?
90+1 min There shall be four additional minutes. Here's Enna Cooper to ease us through them. "The back-four of Walker, Caulker, Dawson and Naughton that Spurs fielded on occasion last season is possibly semantically even more pleasing than Fulham's today. Couple either defence with Wigan's midfield and forwards of last season and you've got the world's finest firm of footballing accountants: McManaman, McCarthy, McArthur, Maloney, Koné and Gomez (as every firm of accountants has one partner whose name doesn't fit)."
That's very nice - I knew there had to be a reason it was picked.
90 min Gary Naismith (what was his name after he got married?), what a player! He takes the ball off Baines and chugs through the middle unmolested, before unleashing a scudding drive from 25 yards that follows a straight line and smashes the base of the left post.
89 min "Sorry, Martin Brooks, your prosody is wrong", chides Nick Germancos. "Riise and Reither are trochees not iambs. Sorry, Daniel Harris, for being such a pedant in the course of an exciting football game - but I can't let this pass..."
And neither should you. The MBM if nothing if not severe as regards that precise distinction.
Everton bundle along the left, and Baines clips back a cross for Lukaku. He's crowded out, and it looks as though the move's over, but the ball squirts to Mirallas, who chips softly past Heitinga and then falls over him. Before anyone can cry penalty, Baines, still there by the by-line, drives a low cross, and Naismith slides it in at the near post.
84 min Naismith should finish it, doesn't. McGeady finds Lukaku inside, and he drags right before reversing a ball left. Naismith is there, and attempts a finish not dissimilar to that of Mirallas, but without the same accuracy, and Stockdale gets down well to save with his studs.
83 min Everton have scored more late goals than any team in the division, and it's not hard to see why. They've got pace and stuff, but more than anything, they have a manager who believes in them. Football's a simple game, so it sort of follows that this is the principal aspect of management. See Rodgers, Brendan.
81 min Dembele is replaced by Roberts.
This is lovely. Howard humps a groundkick towards McGeady, who's not quite free, but free enough to control brilliantly on his chest, left of centre, and slide in a brilliant pass, directly into the path of Mirallas, gambolling through the centre and in on goal. He draws the keeper - it's a decent likeness, too - and slips a low shot inside the left-hand post. There follows rapture.
76 min Osman is off and McGeady is on.
75 min I wonder if Roberto Martinez regrets taking Deulofeu off now, because Fulham are all over this. A lovely lay-off from Dembele arrives perfectly into the path of Sidwell, who's scythed through by Baines at the cost of a booking. The free-kick, roughly in centrefield, is clipped towards Heitinga at the back post - and he's only right there, all alone and shaping into a flying header. But it's straight at Howard, and the chance goes - though Fulham are soon back, Dejagah ushered away from goal by Coleman before nipping back and crossing superbly. Kasami is there, and his effort is blocked, the ball squirting to Heitinga - and his hard drive is blocked away. Two good saves from Howard, but he shouldn't have had a sniff of either, really.
74 min "'Riise, Heitinga, Hangeland, Reither'," subvocalises Michael Cosgrove." In shortened form, that gives 'Reichhattenhangelandritter', which sounds like the name of a piece of made-in-Germany welding equipment."
Or some chocolate.
Oh yes! Dejagah takes a ball from Sidwell on the left and advances, cutting inside and past McCarthy, who then finds himself frenching the turf. There's not much doing, so he absolutely annihilates a wondrous drive that screeches into the near-post top corner. That was something, a thing, and everything.
70 min Fulham have found something since the changes - nothing yet describable, but a thing nonetheless.
68 min Deulofeu departs and Mirallas arrives.
66 min Lukaku almost finishes it, soft-shoeing away from Riether down the right and barging through Heitinga inside the box. He then loses possession, regains it, and shmices a shot straight at Stockdale from five yards.
64 min Double change for Fulham. Richardson and Kvist off, Woodrow and Dejagah on.
63 min Fulham's first attack in a while, Heitinga's loping cross bouncing in front of Howard, who collects easily. Everton quickly break, Deulofeu - easily the best player on the pitch - burning diagonally from right to left. But just as he rights himself back inside to shoot, he slightly overruns the ball, and Heitinga inserts a leg to stop him. But that was great nonetheless - he is going to be a player, and he knows it - he's got the strut.
61 min Everton are going to score more times.
59 min Naismith is playing like a boss! Taking up a position at inside-left, he watches a low pass onto his toes, body already turning, and slides instantly into the path of the advancing Baines, ahead and outside. Inside the box and with a shooting opportunity, he's distracted by the presence of Lukaku, sort of hedging with a sort of cross, that's too much of a sort of shot to quite arrive in his path.
57 min Deulofeu teases Riether again, laughing at his lisp, and exchanges passes with Naismith before banging over another inviting low cross, again treated with disdain by his team-mates.
55 min "Has there ever been a better sounding back four than Fulham's today?", wonders Martin Brooks. 'Riise, Heitinga, Hangeland, Reither'. Assonance, consonance: internal rhyme, it's beautiful. The stresses arrange as: Iamb, Anapaest, Amphimacer, Iamb.* In all my time carrying tea around & pretending to study poetry I've not seen that arrangement. I propose we call it 'the high line'.
*short, long/ long, long, short/ long, short, long/ short, long. (if you broke it up into disyllabic feet it would be iamb, spondee, iamb, iamb, iamb. But that would be Riise, Heitin, GaHan, Geland, Reither and then 'GaHan' would be a spondee too and the whole thing would collapse. From an Arsenal perspective, no collapses please!)".
52 min "Just your normal first half away Everton performance" emailed Daniel Miller at half-time. "2-11-3-3-6 so far this season - with 11 goalless first halves."
I've no idea what that telephone number means, but imagine it's simple enough for everyone else to deduce.
Baines' corner isn't much, and it's headed away easily enough - but only to Naismith, loitering around the environs of the box, just left of centre. He trots into a volley that's strong and controlled, and it hits Barry, who may have deliberately flicked it, before cannoning Stockdale's shins - he was running back towards his line.
50 min Everton have stepped things up already, snapping into tackles and trying and stuff. Deulofeu wins another corner after burrowing towards the right by-line, and, and, and...
49 min "Some nice work so far from Sylvain 'Staring-blankly-in-to-middle' Distin", offers Matt Dony.
I like to call him Soi.
47 min Everton rattle some quick passes, Naismith and Osman combining in a one-two that results in a dangerous low cross from the former. It whooshes across the box and earns a corner, which comes to nothing.
47 min Does the "live by the river" bit contradict the tone of London Calling? I contend aye.
46 min We've started.
The PA is playing London Calling. Naismith is on for Barkley.
Does Roberto Martinez become angry? Because if so, his players will be getting telt round about now.
That was a relatively pleasant bit of stuff from Fulham. They've fought really hard for possession and have passed sharply and smartly. In particular, they've found space on their right and the delivery has been good too. Everton have done mainly nothing, Deulofeu aside.
...
45+1 min Fulham should score! They don't. Kasami finds Sidwell, just outside the box and on the right. He curves over a ball to the back post, and this time, Dembele is right there. He heads firmly, but straight at Howard.
45 min There shall be one minute of additional time.
44 min Hangeland sends a ball down the left for the excellent Richardson (yes, I know!). He pauses, thinks (yes, I know!) and squares to Dembele, on the edge of the box. There's a little space and time, so he takes it, before trying a curler that loops over the top.
42 min Everton pass the ball to each other a few times, and it makes its way out to Deulofeu. He nudges a yard to the side of Riise, and curls over a brilliant low cross that was too good to anticipate, so no one did.
41 min Everton surely won't play this badly in the second half. Fulham need to do something.
40 min "Enough of this nickname nonsense", says James Chambers. "We all know how unimaginative footballers are... His nickname is probably Stoney, or The Stonester, or Stonalicious, or the Stoneinator... Or John."
Or Paint Trophy.
38 min Distin finds Barry, facing his own net, and Kasami bustles through him. "Allow that!" says Lee Probert, and Kasami proceeds towards goal, cutting in to drive a shot at the near post - but Distin is there, extending a body to block. This is really good from Fulham.
36 min Barkley, who's been quiet, is found by Osman "in and around the penalty box". There's not a whole lot of room in which to manoeuvre - he's surrounded - but manages to dig out a decent enough shot that's snatched by Stockdale at the near post.
34 min Kasami, on the touchline. takes a throw from Riether and with his back to goal hooks over another suitable cross. No one's there to enjoy it, so it makes it's way to the other side of the box, where Riise meets it with his left foot. It does not go near the goal.
32 min Richardson pulls off Coleman and takes a pass on the half-turn, skipping around him. Coleman pulls him back, and is booked.
30 min Everton have been very Neil Pointon so far. Of whom it would be immoral to talk without posting this. "A block tackle", reckoned Motty, and so it was.
27 min More niceness from Fulhan, Sidwell on the right chwipping over a cross towards the back post. Holtby does brilliantly to slide away from his marker, and arches back and neck to butt towards the far corner, but Howards backpeddles to tip over the top. The corner comes to nothing.
26 min "John Stones nickname is 'Sticksan'", reckons "Sean Moore (not the drummer from the Manics)", channeling Neil "Dissa" Pointon.
23 min Much action! Dembele, whose movement looks very smart - or if you listen to the commentators, is strong and powerful - espies Richardson on his outside. He feeds the ball into his path, and there follows a low, hard shot, well saved by Howard with his studs. And immediately, Everton break, G Deulofeu rushing down the right with thrilling pace, teasing Hangeland, nipping outside, and driving a shot that Stockdale blocks clear.
21 min Richardson takes possession in midfield, left of centre, and looks up to see Dembele pointing for a pass, McManaman-style. It's duly delivered, in between the centre-backs, and well controlled, only for a shot to be dribbled at Howard, only for the linesman to flag for offside, only for it not to be offside.
20 min "I like to imagine Niall Quinn as a historian", emails Andrew Byrne. "'The Second World War had a significant impact on a number of countries during the middle of the 20th century. It is still talked about. To be fair, this shouldn't be a surprise.'"
For me.
19 min Deulofeu has "G Deulofeu" on his shirt. Presumably in order to avoid confusion with the myriad other Deulofeus in the division. Kasami, meanwhile, arcs over another cross, Sidwell rushing after itand the back post - but the delivery is a little strong.
18 min Is John Stones' dressing room nickname Toilet Testes? Please tell me that it is.
16 min "So the evolution is from mullet to ray?" arfs John Tumbridge, wishing he'd thought of it ten minutes earlier. As we all do.
14 min This is really close. McCarthy does brilliantly to block a shot from Richardson, and from the ensuing right-wing corner, Hangeland peels away towards the near corner of the box and contorts he head into the hard flick that scoots towards the far post. Kasami is after it, and throws his brow at it, but can't quite get the angle to divert it home, as Barkley tugs his shirt.
12 min Fulham are playing well here - not words I ever supposed to type. But they are, and Hangeland clips a free-kick out left to Riise. He chests down and nashes by Deulofeu before cutting back for Richardson, but Distin sends it behind.
11 min Everton have yet to really threaten, and Roberto Martinez is on the touchline, stroking his chin. As we'd all like to, given its unfathomable smoothness.
9 min Lovely from Kvist, who slides through midfield and around McCarthy before seeking Richardson outside him. The ball is dispatched in that direction, but fails to make it.
7 min Richardson sprays a long ball right to Kasami, who steps inside and curves a tempting cross to the far post. But Dembele was on his heels generally being 17, so the ball skipped off the turf and behind.
6 min "I put it to you MLud" puts it to me M'lud John Tumbridge, "that there were points in his life when Hoddle's Hair did not resemble a manta ray: I present evidence here.
That's the beauty of it - it's revolutionary evolution.
5 min Everton knock the ball backwards and forwards along their back four, like Liverpool in their eighties heyday.
3 min Fulham break nicely, and eventually the ball arrives Holtby on the right. He attempts to drill a composed yet powerful finish high inside the near post, but slices it all black years away instead.
2 min A pass canons Barry in centrefield and he squares for Osman to send Lukaku away at inside-left and running at Heitinga. He leans infield and shoots hard, but the ball is deflected behind for a corner. Richardson heads it behind and there follows another, which comes to nothing.
1 min Heitinga is still wearing his mask, but he's no Facundo "Alright" Sava.
1 min Fulham begin. To the heart, tick-tock, you don't stop, stop!
Niall Quinn is co-commentating. I am already blinded by the insight.
Fulham hand a debut to Moussa with two esses Dembele. He's only 17, the scumbag, but I'm told by Lawrence Ostlere, sat diagonally opposite me (is that possible?), that he and Patrick Roberts are very good.
The players are lining up in the tunnel before the tunnel. Here they come! "Ladies and gentlemen, it is showtime!"
Yes, he really said that.
Riff time. Uses and occupations for Glenn Hoddle's pet ray.
Roy Hodgson received the ball whilst walking along the touchline, and kicked it back. Hilarity ensued. Talking of which, Glenn Hoddle's manta ray is appearing in an improvised sitcom to be shown on BBC3.
Konstantinos Mitroglu cost £12m, or in the region of, in January. He has made one start and one substitute appearance, for the league's bottom side. Oh.
Other hand, and in the interests of balance, he has scrumptious eyebrows.
Glenn Hoddle's hair is in fact not hair. Scientific research has revealed it to have been a manta ray all along.
So, Fulham make three changes from their most recent kicking. Holtby, Dembele and Kasami come in, and the splendidly-named Cauley Woodrow, Kacaniklic and the suspended Amorebieta are saved. Everton are unchanged.
Wa teams:
Fulham: Stockdale; Riether, Heitinga, Hangeland, Riise; Holtby, Kvist, Sidwell, Richardson; Kasami, Dembele.
Preamble At some point in a lifetime, and however hard they try to avoid it, people have to prove themselves. Can you be socially acceptable? Are you a waste of space? Will your friends invite your ex to their wedding?
Hello Everton! Yes, it is now that time. Again. It's true that Arsenal's run-in is easy, and it's true that with the serious pressure off, they'll probably do enough. But you never know; win both games in hand, and Everton are right there. It's all very well taking three points at Old Trafford - even West Brom do that. Taking points everywhere, though, at this stage of the season, is the preserve of the proper.
London hottest place in Britain with temperatures reaching a maximum of 20.4C
Parts of Britain basked in weather warmer than mainland Spain and Ibiza as temperatures reached over 20C (68F).
London was the hottest place in the UK, with temperatures reaching a maximum of 20.4C (68.7F) at St James's Park at 1pm on Sunday, according to the Met Office.
Party's election manifesto will include commitment to scrap government's £9,000 fees but long-term policy still undecided
Labour's manifesto for next year's election will include a pledge to scrap the coalition's £9,000-a-year tuition fees and may replace it with a maximum of £6,000, Douglas Alexander has confirmed.
Arsène Wenger rules out Arsenal's chances of winning the Premier League after his side draw with Manchester City. The Gunners were 1-0 down after 18 minutes until Mathieu Flamini's 53rd-minute equaliser. Arsenal are currently fourth in the league, three points behind Manchester City
Eight-month-old royal appears in informal picture at Kensington Palace ahead of tour of New Zealand and Australia
87% of the world's energy comes from fossil fuels, which is having a disastrous effect on our climate. Reducing our energy use can make a big difference to our planet as well as our wallets
This weekends selection of images around the world from same-sex marriages in UK to Land Day in Jerusalem
An outstanding shot from the Rowing World Cup in Sydney matches the perfect symmetry of a rower's oars with the early morning sunrise reflecting on the water
New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson says his team is looking to knock favourites Sri Lanka out of the World Twenty20. Williamson admits New Zealand's opponents have been playing good cricket in the competition, but says his side are confident they have the talent to win on Monday. The batsman also says his team is benefitting from the performances of Brendan McCullum
David Moyes says the support for him at Old Trafford was fantastic despite an aeroplane, which was carrying a 'Wrong one Moyes out' banner, that flew above the stadium during their game against Aston Villa. The plane, which appeared two minutes into the game, was booed by fans in the stadium. Moyes says his team did not start well, but commends them for their goal-scoring performance
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini commends his team for a successful week after a 1-1 draw at the Emirates stadium. Pellegrini says his side would have been happier if they had walked away with a win against Arsenal, but are satisfied with being four points ahead of them in the league. Manchester City will play Southampton on 5 April
As the V&A celebrates Italian fashion, we pick our favourites
Who do you think should have made the list? Leave your comments below and you could feature in our alternative list next week
Rowan Williams blames western lifestyle for 'pushing environment towards crisis' ahead of IPCC report
Rowan Williams has spoken of his fears for the global climate, saying the winter flooding was a portent of what is to come.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, the former archbishop of Canterbury blamed the lifestyle of western countries, which he said was "pushing the environment towards crisis".
A weaker pound could help, but a change of mindset is required to rebalance Britain's post-recession economy
Forget Harold Wilson and the jumbo jets that allegedly cost Labour the 1970 election. Forget Nigel Lawson and the import binge of the 1980s. Britain has never seen bigger current account deficits than those it is notching up right now.
Back in the 1960s, a deficit of 1% of national output would have been seen as dangerously high. A 3% deficit would have had investors heading for the exits, prompting a run on sterling. The shortfalls in the third and fourth quarters of 2013 averaged 5.5% of GDP, we learned last week, and yet the pound is seen as a safe-haven currency.