It’s not off topic. And it’s not proven. And there are more and more scientists who dispute global warming. For example, one of 700 sceptics:

“There is no observational evidence that the addition of anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have caused any temperature perturbations in the atmosphere.” – Award-winning atmospheric scientist Dr. George T. Wolff,

It’s simply that you’ll never hear about sceptics like Wolff, Claude Allegre, or even Vaclav Klaus in the media, except in dismissive terms of derision. In our highly managed (i.e. spun) news, these people simply don’t exist. So we’re not having a proper debate about global warming, but instead the maintenance of a manufactured consensus.

The spin in the Labour party, and in the entire political class with its false consensus, reflects a wider degradation in more and more areas of public life.

I think Nick Clegg has a point when he says that a lot of British people are instinctively liberal deep down – we need to bring that instinct to the surface and get them to vote with it!

I think you’re quite right about the British people being instinctively liberal. It’s just a shame that the Lib Dems aren’t liberal as well. I voted for them for 35 years, imagining that they were. But after 95% of Lib Dems MPs (including Nick Clegg) voted for a complete smoking ban, I realised that they weren’t in the least bit liberal after all. And I’ll never vote for them again.

Your right in that Brown being in the post in the first place is emblamatic of wider problems because had they had a proper election I doubt he would have won. In many ways in their rush to replace Blair they replaced him with his antheisis, somebody who placed too much emphasis on spin to somebody who couldn’t ’spin’ or communicate to save their lives. It is also slightly mythological to say Blair was controlled by spin; he was just good at it but had a vision far superior in scope to the manergerialism of Brown (though that was often a cock-eyed and wrong one).

If Brown is got rid of I think you will see a proper leadership election and the debate you rightly say is desireable

my partner had antibiotic-resistant cystitis for 3 months until she resorted to homoeopathy – sorted with one tablet.

it’s all anecdotal, but that truly doesn’t matter if the clinical signs resolve.

I would however agree that there is a disturbing amount of non-political spin, for example with alternative therapies pretending that they have a scientific basis (which they almost always don’t).

The constant obsession with how to trick people into supporting policy X, or liking person Y… this is what’s wrong with politics.

It’s more than just political spindoctory. Global warming is about distorting reality. So is passive smoking. Such fraud is now endemic. It’s not just the politicians who engage in it. Everyone does it.

Part of the problem is that being the second largest party always feels like failure for them. As Lib Dems we’re used to being relatively unpopular so we are willing to base our policies on liberalism rather than abandon our principles to chase votes. That said, I think Nick Clegg has a point when he says that a lot of British people are instinctively liberal deep down – we need to bring that instinct to the surface and get them to vote with it!

If they stopped showing off and just got on with the job, we might be a lot more impressed. Then, they might not need to show off.

It’s no coincidence that all the crap that happens in workplaces and comes between people and the work their supposed to be doing is generally known as ‘office politics’…