I’ve been having an interesting exchange with one Oliver Kamm on Roy Greenslade’s Guardian blog. Check it out. (I'm posting as notbored - ed.)

I've also written some short notes on what the latest UN Human Development Report (among other things) tells us about Britain’s policy on climate change. It’s not good news, to be honest. Have a look.

Finally, be sure to have a look at Naomi Klein’s recent take on what the rising market in defence tells us about the course we are currently on. The picture Klein paints matches closely the one diagnosed and predicted by security analyst Paul Rogers in Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century. Rather than dealing with the major root causes of instability and insecurity - environmental degradation and rampant inequality among them - the rich world is essentially pursuing a strategy of “liddism” - building the fortress walls ever higher in an effort to keep the lid on a melting pot of global tensions, and their violent expression. Unfortunately, as recent events are demonstrating all too well, in an age of asymmetric warfare such a strategy is less than likely to succeed. That’s quite apart from its moral repugnance, of course. Klein provides a compelling insight into how this strategy is continuing to be applied, and extended.