Chief Blair’s long goodbye
Tony Blair at last has a proper job to fall back upon when he – eventually –
leaves Downing Street. Sitting on a wooden throne under the shade of a
baobab tree, the prime minister was last week made a paramount chief of
Sierra Leone.
If he so wishes, he is now entitled to sit in the country’s parliament and has
the power to resolve land disputes. The title was a reward for his decision
seven years ago to send 1,500 troops to protect the capital, Freetown,
against a rebel army. And it marked another stop on what is rapidly becoming
a controversial farewell tour. Back at home The Daily Telegraph complained:
“The final curtain can’t come soon enough,” and noted there were countries
where Blair’s Boeing could not “touch down anywhere with a clear
conscience”.
Even The Guardian, though giving credit for pushing debt cancellation in 18
countries, gave a muted review to his achievements on the continent. Only
The Times came whole-heartedly to his rescue.
“The snide comments on Tony Blair’s farewell tour of Africa are ill-deserved,”
said the paper as it recalled how he made Africa the focus of Britain’s G8
presidency, set up an international commission, and campaigned for action in
Darfur and Zimbabwe.
What a farewell, though. His fellow paramount chiefs sat in state on plastic
garden chairs while a chorus of women – all dressed in white – sang in
praise of Blair.
It was like a Labour party conference with sunshine. The prime minister had
started the African leg of his farewell tour in Libya, where Colonel Gadaffi
received him in what is now the traditional manner – in a tent in the middle
of the desert.
They discussed the fight against terrorism, British help for Libya’s legal
system, and improving commercial ties: BP has won a £454m gas exploration
deal.
And he rounded off the trip in South Africa, where – as is also traditional –
he had his photograph taken with Nelson Mandela, who welcomed him to the
distinguished club of former leaders. The iconic ex-president then took the
gloss off the moment by rubbing in the “former” nature of Blair’s
leadership. “I look forward to Gordon Brown’s premiership,” he said.
Never mind. Gordon might be prime minister in waiting, but is he a paramount
chief?
Asterix’s own-Gaul
The mighty warrior Asterix, who has fought the Roman occupation of Gaul for
more than 40 years, has finally met his match: he stands accused of being
too French.
The popular cartoon character has been used to promote the UN children’s
charter. In a new version of the charter, Asterix and his sidekick Obelix
tell children about their rights. But critics say he does not represent
modern, multicultural France – especially as he spends all his time
attacking foreigners (ie, the Romans).
Jean-Pierre Rozenczveig, of the Defence for Children International, complains:
“It ignores the multicultural reality of France.” Too carried away by
giddy romance to draw up a prenuptial agreement? No need to worry. The
postnup is soaring in popularity, reports the Financial Times.
The deal – signed after marriage to protect assets in case of a messy divorce
– is booming among newly rich hedge fund managers. A New York lawyer
explains his clients’ thinking thus: “All my spouse is doing is spending my
money. Let me stanch the flow now. Let me limit the goody bag and limit my
future exposure.”
The future’s bright with fusion
It’s carbon-friendly, it won’t clutter up the countryside with giant
windmills, and there are no embarrassing waste products that need burying
for centuries to come. Is nuclear fusion the answer to the world’s energy
crisis? A team led by British scientists is hoping to find out by building a
working reactor that would create fusion by laser power.
The high power laser energy research (HiPER) project is expected to cost
around €500m, and the EU is considering whether to back it. And the UK is
the leading contender to host the work, says Professor Mike Dunne, director
of the Central Laser Facility in Oxfordshire.
Traditional nuclear reactors use fission: splitting uranium atoms to create
energy. Power stations use this energy to heat water and create steam, which
drives a turbine to produce electricity. But fusion recreates the physical
process at the heart of the sun, where atoms of hydrogen are fused together
to form helium. The tiny amount of mass lost in this process creates huge
amounts of energy.
A fusion reactor is already being built at Cadarache in France, where atoms
will be fused by magnetic force. But the British team thinks bombarding
hydrogen with a high-energy laser is more promising. According to a Guardian
report, fusion creates low-level nuclear waste “but nothing more dangerous
than you would find in a hospital”.
But the laser will need to fire several shots a second – and the world’s most
powerful lasers currently need several minutes to steel themselves for a
second shot.
Angry but coping
Never mind Worcester woman, forget Mondeo man. The people that Gordon Brown
and David Cameron will be scrapping over at the next election are the Coping
class, according to Alice Thomson in The Daily Telegraph.
“The coping classes have mortgages, personal debt and nursery school fees to
juggle,” she says. “Most are two-income families; they pay their taxes,
commute into work every day, make sure their children eat breakfast before
they go to school and finish their homework before slumping in front of the
TV at night.
“These people are copers. They take responsibility for their lives. And they
want some recognition that they are doing a good job paying the country’s
bills, instead of being ridiculed for their suburban values.” The term was
coined by Eoghan Harris, an adviser to the former Irish prime minister John
Bruton. According to Harris, society is no longer pyramid-shaped with the
upper class at its peak: it is a rugby ball, with a huge middle class.
Meddling from cradle to nave
One of the downsides of the Blair legacy, according to critics, is a huge
increase in government meddling. Just ask churchwardens, who have been
advised to carry whistles in case fire breaks out during evensong.
The advice comes in a booklet from Ruth Kelly’s Department for Communities and
Local Government, which has tightened up fire safety regulations.
Under the 2005 Fire Safety Order, churches and other public buildings were
ordered to carry out a risk assessment and appoint a responsible figure in
charge of fire safety.
At a church, this would normally be the churchwarden. The Daily Mail last week
revealed that two archdeacons had written to churches in south London with
the following advice: “Some churches have already held fire practice during
the last hymn, timed the evacuation and noted that in their risk assessment.
Churchwardens should be provided with standard teacher’s playground whistles
for this purpose.”
If you are a churchwarden and a parent, this is going to be a busy time
because the Mail also reported another government initiative.
“Parents of babies and toddlers will be expected to record their child’s
progress in new learning diaries,” the paper revealed. “They will be
encouraged to log details of every activity attempted by their children,
ranging from stacking play bricks to singing nursery rhymes.
The diaries will be scrutinised by childcare experts to check that parents are
doing all they can to prevent their offspring from falling behind.” Bricks
will be stacked, of course, only after a full risk assessment.
