The Week

Leading article

Carbon captives | 7 April 2012

The government’s desire for a ‘green economy’ has become such an obsession that it has begun to override common sense. This week, the Department for Energy and Climate Change invited bidders to apply for £1 billion of public funding for a commercial-scale carbon capture and storage project. The money will be used, we are told,

Portrait of the week

Portrait of the week | 7 April 2012

Home Nick Clegg, the deputy Prime Minister, said he could not support as they stood government plans to hold in camera civil court cases involving secret intelligence. The government also proposed changing the law to allow it to monitor the telephone calls, emails, texts and visits to websites of everyone in the country. UK Biobank

Ancient and modern

Ancient and modern: Plutarch on pasties

Any appeal to the electorate that the coalition may once have had seems to be fading fast. If the decision to put VAT on a hot pasty turns out to have been the turning point, the Gang of Four who run the Cabinet have only themselves to blame for not paying enough attention to Plutarch,

Barometer

Barometer | 7 April 2012

Sinking feelings Some conspiracy theories on the sinking of the Titanic: — The disaster was planned by a bunch of Jesuits, Captain Smith of the Titanic included, intent on bumping off Benjamin Guggenheim, Isa Strauss and Jacob Astor, who opposed the establishment of the US Federal Reserve and therefore impeded Jesuit efforts to control the global

Letters

Letters | 7 April 2012

Generation wars Sir: Viva Carol Sarler (‘Battle of the generations’, 31 March)! I don’t think I’ve ever read anything as ridiculous as Daniel Knowles’s babblings, which merit a strong riposte. It is galling to read a 24-year-old simplistically categorise all of we ‘baby-boomers’ (I was born in 1946) as the people responsible for today’s economic