The Intelligence2 debate report
Intelligence2 debate report
Capitalism can save the planet (with carbon trading we can solve the climate change crisis without damaging economic growth)
‘It’s about my cappuccino.’ No one expected the great environmental debate — Capitalism can save the Planet — to be reduced to mere refreshments, but Tim Harford, leading for the motion, used the coffee he buys outside his FT office as a symbol of the global challenge. Our survival depends on consumer decisions at every level of industrial production. Let capital decide, he said. Keep government out of it. Otherwise we’ll end up, as we do now, with excellent biofuels like Brazilian sugarcane being taxed at 25 per cent.
Nigel Lawson, against the motion, made a subtle, thoughtful, somewhat donnish and completely captivating speech examining ‘the disconnect’ between politicians’ promises and their actual effect on climate change. Carbon is a greening gas, he argued, so it’s absurd to want our economies ‘decarbonised by 70 per cent’. Terrible, futile damage will be caused. ‘And there’s a considerable element of scam about the whole thing,’ he added, referring to the EU carbon-trading system.
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Labour’s U-turn on social housing for non-immigrants is welcome but too late
Rod LiddleRod Liddle says that metropolitan liberal ideology is too deeply ingrained in local councils, social services and the judiciary to be overturned by one panic measure driven by Labour’s sudden fear of the BNP
To become an extremist, hang around with people you agree with
Cass SunsteinCass Sunstein — co-author of the hugely influential Nudge and an adviser to President Obama — unveils his new theory of ‘group polarisation’, and explains why, when like-minded people spend time with each other, their views become not only more confident but more extreme
Who would have thought a herd could moonwalk?
Mark EarlsThe acclaimed web theorist, Mark Earls, says that the death of Michael Jackson unleashed the extremes of collective action: mass mourning and sick jokes
A splendid lunch with Jimmy McNulty
Deborah RossIn the first of an occasional series of interviews over meals, Deborah Ross talks to Dominic West about The Wire and the challenge to an Old Etonian of playing an American cop
What Jacko needed was someone to say ‘No’
Uri Geller
My defining memory of Michael Jackson — vulnerable, brilliant, otherworldly — is of watching him dance to the soundtrack of a movie.
Telling tales
Sam LeithOx-Tales: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, Oxfam, £5 each
My air rage is driven by righteous anger
Chrissy IleyChrissy Iley on her many outbreaks of in-flight fury — one of which led to a passenger mutiny. Why do we have to pay £8,000 for airline staff not to be rude to us?
Why I’m voting for Ukip
Stuart Wheeler
Stuart Wheeler, once a major Tory donor, says that by failing to confront the crucial issue of Europe, David Cameron is betraying his country
You Know It Makes Sense
James Delingpole
I don’t bait greens only for fun. I do it because they’re public enemy number one
Hague’s EU policy would be suicidal for Britain
David Miliband
The year ahead is crucial for the European Union.
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