the phrase "just as" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here Tony.

I don't agree with everything the CCC comes out with, but it's a bunch of climate scientists doing climate science.

Moffatt's just a mouth piece for the gas industry, a fact that's omitted from this article.

is this the same Clive Moffatt who is chairman of the Gas Security Group, "a lobby group that represents major energy users"? Or some other Clive Moffatt. He does seem to be pro continuing to use lots of fossil gas.

not much detail on the environment, considering how influential the EC then EU have been, on our environmental law.

The author sounds like a sensible thoughtful person. But then says the most extraordinary things.

Anyone with a vague interest or involvement with the planning system will know that it has two main aspects - development control and forward planning. Yet the article would have us believe that forward planning doesn't exist, when in fact it's policies both in Local and Subject (mineral, waste) Plans which determine the decisions made by the development control side. Those policies are derived from national planning guidance (the NPPF) and case law.

We all want to live in beautiful neighbourhoods where quality of life is placed at the heart of planning.

The question is - will this happen if zoning is introduced? Or will it instead be a charter for developers - especially the volume house-builders. How exactly will zoning help create demand for small developers or self-builders.

We all want the public to be involved in shaping the places they live.

At the moment public engagement happens at the forward plan stage - and at the planning application stage. The new proposals seek to remove one of these engagements. How is this improving democratic accountability? If my neighbour wants to tear down their house and build a block of 20 flats, I would like to have a say in the decision making. Taking away that right sounds like a major erosion in local democracy - and very unconservative.

The elephant in the room, as is so often the case, is that landowners already hold most of the cards, while the rest of the public generally looks on from the sidelines occasionally shouting "what about what we want?" This fundamental asymmetry in the planning system has been, for the most part, ignored in the white paper. There are a couple of mentions of aspirations to claim more of the land value uplift arising from development for public benefit, by abolishing S106 and CIL and creating a new infrastructure levy. Good luck with that. CIL failed to address the problems of S106 so it's going to take some pretty hard nosed policy making to ignore the very influential voices from the landowning/property consultancy sector.

Housing secretary Jenrick's antics with Desmond and the Westferry Printing Works, don't exactly indicate that the Government is going to go in hard on the levy.

well let's not go near Brexit.

As for the last election, the polls showed a Tory win from the outset.

This just goes to show how out of touch with the public Conservative Party members are.

The British Heart Foundation, hardly at the forefront of any campaign to claim structural racism does or does not exist in British society, urge caution over any claims that there is a genetic basis to minority ethnic groups being more susceptible to covid19.

"Ethnicity is about much more than genetics, and there is a lack of concrete evidence for a genetic factor influencing the differences in susceptibility or outcomes for Covid-19 so far."

they go on to point out

"Before the outbreak of Covid-19, BAME populations were already more likely to suffer ill health, including heart and circulatory diseases and their risk factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes, and from a younger age. Much of this is linked to social and economic inequalities rather than genetics."

"Research is being carried out into whether vitamin D might have a role in preventing or treating Covid-19. The body produces Vitamin D from sunlight more slowly if you have darker skin, so some people believe vitamin D deficiency could be a potential factor."
https://www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/heart-m...

sensible stuff and congratulations to Con Home for publishing it.

A couple of thoughts. Zoonoses have been around as long as humanity. Most infectious diseases originated in other animals. The pace of change is what's different, as transport has enabled new infections to spread around the world, instead of staying in one place and becoming locally endemic, or dying out.

The solutions bit was somewhat bland and optimistic. A new global agreement on nature next year via the UN. Sounds good but I'm afraid it is unlikely to make much difference.

As for the vaunted post-Brexit agriculture reforms..... the Govt just rejected proposals from its own senior backbenchers, to require food imports to meet the same standards as domestic farmers are expected to meet - and these are hardly world shattering.

The kind of intensive animal husbandry practices common in the USA are exactly the places where new zoonoses are likely to be born, and old animal and human diseases thrive. Chlorinated chicken isn't about the taste or being poisoned by chlorine, it's about creating bacteria resistant to all known antibiotics.

have a look at the definitions of public and private goods.
http://www.econport.org/content/handbook/Market-F...

certainly to the left of many who leave comments on here, anonymous person.