The Guardian view on Labour eyeing green cuts: they would undermine growth and climate goals | Editorial

Bold pledges to fund climate projects now appear under threat, exposing deeper fiscal constraints and policy dilemmas within the government

In October, the prime minister, chancellor and energy secretary pledged billions to kickstart the UK’s first carbon capture projects – one of the biggest green spending promises of the parliament. By December, Ed Miliband was signing contracts, Sir Keir Starmer vowed to “reignite our industrial heartlands” and Rachel Reeves warned that without bold action, Britain would be stuck with low growth and falling living standards. More importantly, net zero targets wouldn’t be met without removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Fast forward and the Treasury is, reportedly, preparing to scrap the £22bn plan, after economic growth failed to materialise. What a difference a few weeks make.

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Continue ReadingThe Guardian view on Labour eyeing green cuts: they would undermine growth and climate goals | Editorial

Champions Trophy: Chakravarthy spins out New Zealand to ensure India top group

  • India 249-9; New Zealand 205 – India win by 44 runs
  • Australia await for India in Dubai semi-final

India beat New Zealand by 44 runs in a low-scoring contest at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday to top Group A in the Champions Trophy.

Electing to field, New Zealand restricted India to 249 for nine with Matt Henry, who took five for 42, leading a fine team bowling display backed up by their characteristic sharp catching.

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Continue ReadingChampions Trophy: Chakravarthy spins out New Zealand to ensure India top group

Students’ use of AI spells death knell for critical thinking | Letters

Prof Andrew Moran and Dr Ben Wilkinson on the ramifications of the explosion in university essays being written with artificial intelligence

Regarding your report (UK universities warned to ‘stress-test’ assessments as 92% of students use AI, 26 February), for centuries universities have seen themselves as repositories of knowledge and the truth. This began breaking down when experts were no longer valued, critical thinking undermined and public discourse increasingly polarised.

In this world, traditional sources of knowledge have been increasingly rejected. Books, journal articles and old media are challenged by developments in information presentation and retrieval, most notably through apps and social media. It has led to the “Tinderfication” of knowledge.

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Continue ReadingStudents’ use of AI spells death knell for critical thinking | Letters

Why a wealth tax would not add up | Letter

Mark Husbands responds to Brian Cox’s call to tax the super-rich

Brian Cox suggests a wealth tax for the super-rich (Look at Donald Trump and his gang of broligarchs – and tell me we don’t need a wealth tax, 25 February). In theory, it’s an excellent idea – a 2% tax could raise $250bn – but how would it work in practice? The entire tax system in the UK is deliberately complicated and cunningly designed to work for the wealthy.

How do you tax a billionaire who spends most of the year trying out their new deck shoes on a yacht or slumming it in a tax haven? Jim Ratcliffe, who used to pay more than £100m a year in tax in the UK, decamped to Monaco reportedly to save himself £4bn. How would HMRC get its hands on the piles of wealth the rich send offshore?

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Continue ReadingWhy a wealth tax would not add up | Letter

Listen In: How Radio Changed the Home review – the wonder of the wireless revolution

Beaty Rubens’s study of the impact of early radio broadcasts in Britain is full of fascinating and often poignant detail

One hundred years ago this summer, from high above Daventry in Northamptonshire, voices began to beam into the homes of 20 million people. They came from the 500ft tall Borough Hill transmitter – truly revolutionary technology in 1925 – which opened with a new work, Daventry Calling, by the poet Alfred Noyes.

“Sitting around your hearth/Ye are at one with all on earth,” the poem concluded, giving a utopian flavour that recurs often through Beaty Rubens’s meticulously detailed, engaging book. Exploring how radio transformed the lives of Britons between the two world wars, it’s a striking read in our smartphone-dominated world, as we witness another radical invention quickly becoming part of everyday life. A portal into other places from your own house was also an easy concept to sell. Take the cover of the first Christmas issue of Radio Times from 1923, one of many fascinating images in the book, showing a rapt family gathering around their small set.

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Continue ReadingListen In: How Radio Changed the Home review – the wonder of the wireless revolution

David Johansen obituary

Singer, songwriter, actor and punk pioneer best known as the frontman of New York Dolls

On the day that the New York Dolls appeared on the BBC music show The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973, they were openly derided by the host, Bob Harris. “Mock rock,” he opined to camera.

For all his snarling attitude, the band’s singer, David Johansen, who has died aged 75, might well have agreed. The last thing he expected was for his band to be taken seriously. The Dolls took their lead not from the “adult-oriented” rock and earnest singer-songwriters dominating the US album charts, but from the glam rock scene making headway in the UK singles charts. British acts from the Sex Pistols to Morrissey would later repay the compliment, citing the band as a key influence.

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Continue ReadingDavid Johansen obituary