The Mirror Crack'd

2023 has been a pig of a year but, let's be honest, things can only get worse. Do you remember the days when we listened to the midnight bongs at New Year, linked arms and sang Auld Lang Syne, oohed and aahed at the fireworks and made our resolutions in the genuine hope and expectation that things really could only get better? If you do, you must, like me, be getting on in years. Halcyon days they seem now, and surely never to be repeated. We were naive then but now there's no excuse for such cock-eyed optimism. You'd have to be purblind or seriously delusional to believe otherwise. As a species we're demonstrably on the slippery slope to destruction, that much must now be crystal clear to almost everyone except politicians and petrocarbon moguls. Oh, sure, the planet and many of its lifeforms will survive the Anthropocene Era, and even a rump of humankind may limp along against the odds, as it did through the last Ice Age. But that's not exactly a future to embrace

They say there's nothing new under the sun and official papers from 2003, newly-released by the National Archives, certainly seem to show that to be true. Across a wide range of issues, from immigration to the Good Friday Agreement and the Parthenon Sculptures, Tony Blair, during his premiereship, was beset by many of the same problems now facing Rishi Sunak. He dealt with them very differently, though. Take immigration, for example. In 2002 asylum applications had reached 84,132 but through imposing tougher measures on border control and visas - and bearing in mind the UK was still in the EU, with more porous borders - the annual number of asylum applications fell to a low of 17,916 by 2010, the last year of the Labour administration. It now stands at almost the level it did in 2002 - and still the small boats cross the English Channel. One of the surprising suggestions put to Blair for a deterrent to asylum seekers was to accommodate them in a camp on the Isle of Mull. You have t

It's been interesting to compare and contrast the televised Christmas addresses of two kings, Felipe VI of Spain and Charles III of the UK, to their respective subjects. One uniting factor between the rwo monarchs seems to be, judging by viewing figures, that their nations turn off, or over, in droves as soon as they appear on their TV screens. Almost 7 million watched Charles and slightly fewer Felipe. Based on the population sizes of the two countries, that means Felipe actually got a higher percentage of his people viewing. However, Charles was probably pleased to avoid the drop in viewership from last year experienced by his Spanish counterpart (almost 700,000) and would certainly have been glad to avoid the controversy sparked by Felipe's effort this Christmas Eve. Both addresses, Felipe's tenth and only Charles' second, were widely anticipated. Would they stick to safely traditional topics such as faith and community or, in view of the severe threats to world peac

BM-BP Behind the curve as ever the British Museum announces a £50m sponsorship deal with BP. Meanwhile, The Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Royal Shakespeare Company, Scottish Ballet and Royal Opera House have all severed their links to the fossil fuel (sorry, integrated energy) company. The deal apparently includes a new Energy Centre to phase out the museum's reliance on fossil fuels and reduce its carbon footprint. Hmm, for some inexplicable reason the word greenwash springs to mind. Losing its marbles There is, however, a potentially unforeseen opportunity in the deal. BP's 50m quid is also going towards refurbishment and remodelling of the museum's Western Range, which includes the Duveen Gallery, home since 1939 to the display of the Parthenon Sculptures. To avoid any unfortunate mishaps with scaffolding poles and dropped spanners during the works might this not be an opportune moment to relinquish the classical marbles into the safekeeping of the Acropolis Museum in

The law's delay Jason Nottage of legal recruitment agency, Origin Legal, reckons the UK is currently "under-lawyered" by around 10,000 solicitors. This can only add to the backlog in our courts. But what's this? Home Secretary, James Cleverly, as well as seeking a new treaty with Rwanda to prevent future legal challenges to deportations of 'illegal' immigrants to that country is also considering placing British lawyers in the Rwandan court system. I've said it before and I'll say it again, why don't we just all  up sticks and move to Rwanda? 🇷🇼 Jabering on COP28 President, Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, is under fire for climate denial. In a session with Mary Robinson, ex-President of Ireland and chair of the Elders group, he said: "There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.” Unsurprisingly perhaps, he now says his remarks were "misinterpreted and misr

The 2023 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28 for short, thankfully) opened in Dubai last Thursday in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) - whose National Day it is today - and runs until 12 December. This annual international jamboree sees 80,000 delegates jetting in (literally) from all around the globe - the UK alone sent its King, Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary on separate jets - to pontificate, debate and finally vote on measures to reduce the world's CO2 emissions. Suffice to say, an awful lot of trees will need to be planted to offset the flight emissions of COP itself before the ostensible work of the conference even begins (which, despite being set in an international retail paradise - best not use the term 'shopping Mecca' in this context - is emphatically not about   stocking up with Christmas presents).  All of this may seem bizarre enough but the fact that COP28 is being hosted by a petrostate, the world's