There used this thing about 'If you are eighteen and not a socialist then you have no heart, If at thirty, you are still a socialist then you have no brain.' This describes Rod Liddle brilliantly. His editorial on the 'Today Program' would use any device to substantiate socialist sentiment, he was one of those that the Times reported on yesterday in the official report over bias at the BBC. Almost as a reaction to the way that he was treated by his piers Rod has suddenly become far more sensitive to the issues of the day and this article and its several denials is a rounded piece that graces the arguments it addresses. His socialism sought undeniable truths his scepticism fights obvious anomolies. If you hold the opinion that this country has demands for services and supplies of energy that are strained by massive population, too big for its good, then the Government would be in gross dereliction of its duty if it did not ration energy as it does and then call it Global Warming.

Malcolm Turner, Alsager, England

for? canon fodder, tell you what! you be the first in line, take the shot, die your noble death for "queen and country" and when the world and your country have no recollection of your name, 48 hours after the fact (eclipsed of course by that 'Beckham" womans bra size) ponder the wisdom of your statement. in short- patriotism is the opiate of the terminally thick

Duncan, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Northern Ireland is not in Britain. It is, however, in the United Kingdom. Britain is the name of the island containg England, Scotland and Wales.

Joe, London,

To globle warming ,i think that we need to cooperate each other,researching the cause of the globle warming.

claytonsneyder, guizhou-hezhang, China

Regarding your leaflet "a taste of summer"
It is my concern that you have omitted Northern Ireland in your list of restaurants in Britain.
As an English woman who has lived here for over 50 years I would like to say you have made an embarrasing mistake, they are exellant eating places here too . Please don't leave us out. We are British too!

Irene J. Houston, Ballymena, N.Ireland

Quote: " What if a white woman says it, I asked? Ah, I was told, that’s okay only if the white woman in question is a “wigga”, which is to say a white person habituated to using black vernacular and Jamaican slang to the extent that they cannot themselves remember what colour they are. "

You clearly asked a white person about this. The majority of the black community think that the word should be used under no circumstances whatsoever, and wish that their yoof would stop bigging it it up. The rap culture (NOT the whole of black culture, by the way - assuming itself is being, erm, somewhat limited in perception) that uses the N-word is, many people in the black community think, legitimising the use of the word by racists (and it is still used in a racist manner in the deep South, USA, for example, behind closed doors and away from the 'PC gawn mad' crowd.

Juggzy, Oxford,

Actually the cooling of northern europe as a result of global warming is really not that confusing, ten seconds searching google will give you all the info you need, maybe take the time and just make the effort?

Rich, london,

Congratulations for showing a more recent photograph in your column for the Times, Rod. Not only is it a superbly written column, but now you have a smile to match! Best wishes from everyone in Newcastle.

Dave Cook, Newcastle,

The notion that CO2 produced by man determines warming remains a hypothesis. Mere correlation does not establish causation, and the impact of human CO2 is too small to assess, given the effect of other greenhouse gasses such as water vapour. From 1940-1975 temperatures fell while emissions rose. Since 1998 temperatures have remained stable despite rising emissions. Things are not as simple as the green lobby would have us believe, and the alternative hypothesis - that the Sun and cosmic activity drives climate change - continues to gain support.

ASI Blog 28 May

Alister, Cambridge, UK

Actually, science is spectactularly GOOD at predicting things - as long as they refer to situations where only one variable is changing. Ohm's law is a good example; if it wasn't I wouldn't be using this keyboard.
Unfortunately science is being led into disrepute by bogus scientists claiming too much on it's behalf. Systems containing too many elements with too many degrees of freedom are only susceptible to stastical modelling, which gets dodgier as the complexity increases. That's why weather forecasts are so bad & why economics is not a science.

andy young, saffron walden, uk

"The notion that CO2 produced by man determines warming remains a hypothesis. Mere correlation does not establish causation, and the impact of human CO2 is too small to assess, given the effect of other greenhouse gasses such as water vapour. From 1940-1975 temperatures fell while emissions rose. Since 1998 temperatures have remained stable despite rising emissions. Things are not as simple as the green lobby would have us believe, and the alternative hypothesis - that the Sun and cosmic activity drives climate change - continues to gain support."

Adam Smith Inst blog 28 May

Alister, Cambridge, UK

Think your quote about global cooling is a myth. Can't find it in the Washington Post. Lots of unattributed quotes of it. Mind citing a reference?

George Johnson, London,

Isn't it time Bono started paying tax like the rest of us.

andy, Godalming,

more details should make the concept clear.

Joya, Jamaica, NY

Very enjoyable, a small pleasure every Sunday morning. Thanks.

JAMES GALLAGHER, LONDON, U K

There does seem to be an increasing stock of words which, apparently, are only acceptable when used by certain members of society. Some we can laugh about, certainly - but when words like "Holocaust" appear to be heading rapidly in the same direction, maybe we should pause and think....

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

Regarding the Big Brother race row comment, I wonder if anyone else has noticed something which I think is sort of in the same league? In advertising, mixed-race relationships - and by that I mean 'nigga/honky' relationships - are almost always represented by 'black man' with 'white woman', rarely the other way round. I have my theories about this. It would be interesting to know if Rod does too.

Robert, London,

Science is spectacularly bad at predicting things. It's good at explaining why things happened in retrospect but its predictions leave a lot to be desired. One only has to look at weather forecasts to see this. Satellites, super computers and weather buoys dotted around the seas still can't prevent them getting it wrong very regularly.

This of course never stops the media, television and film producers from trotting out stories about impending disaster from supervolcanoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, new ice ages, the latest food or lifestyle choice that will cause cancer or indeed global warming. All are reported uncritically or turned into entertainment.

So far so relatively harmless.

But then we get a story like global warming. Then we get the eco warriors hectoring people for daring to drive a car, take a foreign holiday or leave a television on standby. And our leaders, desperate to look green, buy this tripe and tax us accordingly. When will we ever learn?

Paul Owen, Birmingham, UK

Can you provide, say, 20 citations from the peer reviewed scientific literature published between 1968-1975 that warned of harmful climate cooling. I'd like to compare them with the current papers on global warming.

I suspect you can't, though.

Jamie, Bolton, UK