Rachel Reeves could do with one of those

Indian state leader removes personal astrologer from key government role after backlash

Rationalist critics and opposition leaders had argued that such an appointment would promote superstition over scientific thinking

The newly elected chief minister of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu has revoked the appointment of his longtime astrologer to a key government role following backlash.

Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar, an actor-turned-politician who scored a stunning victory on his electoral debut earlier this month, had picked Rickey Randhan Pandit Vettrivel, an astrologer and numerologist with no administrative experience, to advise him in office.

Rachel Reeves could do with a numerologist... 

Oh hang on, numerology is just superstitious twaddle.

Ed's the man for that.

A hidden order that connects them together.

Scientists discover new way to find aliens

Discovery could allow scientists to find signs of life without relying on particular special instruments, researchers suggest

Scientists might have find a new way of detecting life on other planets.

For years, scientists have been combing the Earth looking for particular molecules on other worlds that might be signs of life. But new research suggests that there might be another, more revealing way of finding them: not by looking for the molecules, but what scientists believe is a hidden order that connects them together.

 

They’re economically illiterate

 

An odd and atypical politician

Eliot Wilson has an interesting CAPX piece on the odd aspect of Keir Starmer's announcement about renationalising British Steel.


Starmer can barely save his career, let alone the steel industry

• The Prime Minister is attempting to save his skin by completely renationalising British Steel
• Does the Government really believe it can run a successful steel business where the private sector has failed?
• Labour's steel strategy is to deploy public expenditure to give the impression they are being productive

The longer he is in office, the more I realise what an odd and atypical politician Keir Starmer is. With his tenancy of 10 Downing Street under genuine threat after last week’s disastrous local and devolved election results, the Prime Minister is pursuing his own internal form of the madman theory: respond to criticism in a way which is so bizarre and disconnected from reality that even your most bitter enemy will be at least perplexed for a while.


The whole piece is well worth reading, both as another story about Labour incompetence and a further reminder of how strange Keir Starmer is beyond the incompetence.


The government has no plan for a competitive steel industry, nor even a rational assessment of whether one is achievable under any circumstances. Instead Starmer is driven by the politician’s syllogism which Sir Humphrey Appleby and Sir Arnold Robinson discuss with dismay in ‘Yes, Prime Minister’:

1. We must do something.
2. This is something.
3. Therefore we must do this.

What will change? What will the Government do differently next year that it has not done this year? How will global circumstances change and how will they be managed? What does a future British steel industry look like? Ministers have no idea, of course, because they have avoided asking the questions. Instead they will deploy public expenditure to make everyone feel like they are being productive.

Maybe British Steel can respond by feeling like it is a successful and profitable enterprise. It is hard to see what more we can expect.

Political parties promote charlatans

Political parties inevitably promote charlatans and what we might generously term borderline charlatans as parliamentary candidates. Charlatans persuade and adapt easily to the latest shifts in party narratives. They play the language games better than most.

For charlatans, ideology is an adaptable narrative, so are principles and moral imperatives are not imperative. Because they must if they hope to be elected, political parties put power before integrity and charlatans offer that.

Even amid the temporary enthusiasm for a new political leader or new political party, there is still no route towards lasting integrity in the political competition for power. If charlatans are not already on board and climbing towards the top of the greasy pole, they soon will be.

But we know that.

Digital Cars

 

Bad weather in Kenya is our fault, nasty tea is too

Warning climate change could threaten Britain’s beloved cup of tea

The familiar comfort of a British cuppa is under threat, with campaigners warning that climate change could soon deliver a more bitter flavour to the nation’s beloved brew.

A new report from aid agency Christian Aid reveals that rising global temperatures and increasingly extreme weather patterns are set to fundamentally alter the taste of tea.

Key tea-producing regions, including Kenya, India, and Sri Lanka, are experiencing conditions that could lead to harsher, less consistent flavours.


Without wishing to suggest that Christian Aid has merely climbed on a bandwagon here, it does have a "climate adaptation and resilience lead". 


Claire Nasike Akello, climate adaptation and resilience lead at Christian Aid, said: “For generations, consumers have taken for granted that a cup of tea will taste the same, day in, day out."