Climate science maverick James Lovelock believes catastrophe is inevitable.

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‘In 2005, a Nobel prize-winning economist began the painstaking process of calculating the true cost of the Iraq war. In his new book, he reveals how short-sighted budget decisions, cover-ups and a war fought in bad faith will affect us all for decades to come.’

Read more at The Guardian.

Walking around Ancoats recently I noticed how many of the buildings (many old cotton mills) are still empty. Some are semi-derelict, in other cases the shell has been tarted up a little, but not much done inside. It’s hard to know how many apartments in the converted and newly-built blocks are occupied. If it hasn’t been possible to ‘regenerate’ this area completely during the property boom of the last few years the question is: will it ever happen now?

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Well done to Manchester Libraries for the program of events they’re running for LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) History Month. My guess is they haven’t had much money to spend on this and I hope next year they will be given more. But they’ve put on some interesting events.

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Why doesn’t the name of the LGF (or ‘Lesbian and Gay F**kwits’ as the poppets are known locally) include bisexual or transgender? Who could be dropped next? Lesbians perhaps?

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A woman employee on a North Sea oil rig had a disturbing dream that there was a bomb on the rig.

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I spotted this in the local Labour propaganda sheet. Note the two guys at far left and right of the picture who can hardly believe the embarrassing spectacle. Also the one front right who takes emergency action to avoid being identifiable in such a tacky photo opportunity.

Plans for a ’super casino’ in Manchester have been axed by the Government. The House of Lords rejected the plans, last March.

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Increasingly, it seems to me that life may have improved for a narrow segment of the UK lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) population, but not for the majority. In some ways, for a large proportion of us things are worse now than they were 15-20 years ago.

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