This is ridiculous.

A judge has sentenced an activist who threw tomato soup in the National Gallery to two years in jail.

The same judge decided not to jail a policeman who gave a drunk woman a lift in his patrol car, then had sexual contact with her. bbc.co.uk/news/articles/… I'm sorry, but the suggestion that children would be upset by soup being thrown on a painting is laughable. And suggests that Judge Chris Hehir has never met any children.

Disappointing and extreme statement by the chief rabbi. 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. Children are catching polio. A UN court has found Israel in breach of international law. Illegal settlers are seizing West Bank land. You can support Israel, but it is deeply sad that, for a faith leader, none of this merits a mention.

Boris Johnson is publishing his memoirs. what should he call them? Lying in State
All Guidance was Followed
Reincarnated as an Olive

We all support non-violent protestors in Iran. What about in the UK?
In the week that the government approved a new coal mine, I went to the trial of Hannah Hunt and Eben Lazarus – the climate activists who glued themselves to John Constable’s Hay Wain
ft.com/content/4a0ab6… On July 4, Hunt and Lazarus entered the National Gallery. Fellow protestors distracted the security guards. Hunt and Lazarus approached the Hay Wain, taped a dystopian version of the picture on top, and glued themselves to the frame...

let’s remember how the mini-Budget was greeted at the time by those who have for years moaned about “the experts”, “the Establishment”, “the blob” etc etc…

1. 2. the IEA

a lot of people get that eating less meat is good for the climate. but many don't realise *how good*

for 50g of protein (recommended daily amount), here are average greenhouse gas emissions
- beef: 25 kg
- cheese: 4 kg
- chicken: 2 kg
- peas: **0.2 kg**

the difference is huge! or take how much land is required, which really matters to stop both climate change and the loss of wild animals.

for 2,000 calories (RDA for women), here is the land used:

- lamb: 233 m²
- cheese: 50 m²
- pork: 15 m²
- peas: *4.3 m²*
- tofu: **2.6 m²**

an order of magnitude!

I’ve been thinking about this line by climate scientist Corinne Le Quéré a lot: “A perfect person could cut their own emissions by [only] perhaps 25%.”

we can only tackle climate change together but that doesn’t mean we’re off the hook as individuals
ft.com/content/94475c… first, cutting your emissions by (say) 25% is a big deal.

and it’s not impossible: you cut your emissions every time you choose not to fly, every time you order the non-meat option, every time you sort out your home heating to use less gas.

but collective action matters more

in this heat, shade is vital, so I’d like to say a big thanks to all those ‘free thinkers’ who spent years casting doubt on climate science, for absolutely no social benefit whatever have any of them admitted they were wrong? of course not.

take Tory MP Christopher Chope. in 2006 he told Parliament it was “doubtful” global warming was all man-made

today:

https://twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1549045270318825473

to introduce this weekend’s FT Magazine cover story on pigs, here’s a little tale about McDonald’s
ft.com/content/8f50f2… McDonald’s does not own pigs. but it does choose what sort of farms its pork comes from.

in recent decades a lot of its pork in the US has come from pigs whose mothers were kept in gestation crates

wait, let me guess - is it because you wanted a pay rise and were accused of sexual harassment (which you deny)? Prospect is convinced that Martyn Percy is a martyr. which is plausible, if you believe…

- Oxford tutors
- Oxford students
- some clergy at Oxford cathedral
- the Bishop of Oxford
- a woman who accused Percy of sexual harassment

… are all lying and Jonathan Aitken is not.

a brief thread for anyone who loves dogs or is thinking of getting a dog… how long does a dog live?
answer: it depends a lot on the breed (and that's important) a new paper in Scientific Reports looks at the longevity of dogs, analysing over 30,000 UK vet records. it found that, on average, British dogs live 11.2 years. Jack Russells live longer. But LOOK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE CHART:

is Wimbledon’s ban on Russian players the best solution? no. but did they have any good options? also no - and ultimately the person to blame for any fall-out is Vladimir Putin ft.com/content/f2c87a… this column was really tricky to write - players like Andrey Rublev clearly don’t want to be associated with Putin (so a ban is very harsh on them), but ultimately I think @TheDolgo and @ElinaSvitolina are right that that isn’t enough given the context.

moving the Champions League final should be just the start. time to ban Russian clubs from UEFA competitions indefinitely. as for Gazprom's sponsorship, time for the other sponsors - @Heineken, @PlayStation, @JustEatUK etc - to say either they go or we do.

ok, sometimes when you are reporting a story, you wonder how on Earth it came to this... let me explain how a head of an Oxford college may be in line for a deal that includes a £1.5m pay-off and the settlement of a sexual harassment claim against him..
ft.com/content/52f6fa… the college is Christ Church – a very grand place, where 13 prime ministers studied, which inspired Alice in Wonderland, and which was once the setting for Harry Potter

students at Oxford have condemned the dean of one of the university's grandest colleges for comparing his position to that of a Holocaust political prisoner
oxfordstudent.com/2021/11/11/chr… Martyn Percy, dean of Christ Church, wrote a (now-deleted) essay about investigations against him that included “images of Nazi concentration camp uniforms”.

the JCR and GCR says it is "deeply offensive to all groups targeted by Nazi persecution"

In this week’s column, I mention the case of Owen Paterson, who is facing a 30 day suspension from the Commons for “egregious” lobbying.

His supporters claim he’s the victim of a stitch-up. Is he? ft.com/content/25845e… The case is complex and tragic, given that Paterson’s wife died by suicide after the investigation began.

ten random facts about animals that did not make it into my book:

1. dolphin therapy is probably a myth, and very bad for dolphins. salon.com/2021/02/01/the… 2. When one pig yawns, another pig nearby yawns too. The probability increases if the two are siblings. nature.com/articles/s4159…

why not cut out the middleman and install a petrol engine? the only thing worse that Musk's post are the replies

This may be the stupidest intervention ever by an MP.

https://twitter.com/jamesowild/status/1374052717841223683

The BBC is a world class broadcaster, and James Wild’s idea of parliamentary scrutiny is to count the flags in its annual report.

It’s up there with the American senators who ask Mark Zuckerberg what the internet is.

I'm getting the hang of commenting on US politics

- if Trump scrapes home in the electoral college, but loses popular vote in 2016, the Democrats are out of touch.

- if Biden scrapes home in the electoral college, and wins popular vote in 2020, the Democrats are out of touch. yes, it's partly about polls and expectations.

but why is it hard for the right to admit that the only reason that American presidential elections are close is because of a perverted electoral system, which is operating in a way that was never intended?

What does it say about Boris Johnson that his preferred pick for BBC chair lasted a week? telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/0… This is brilliant - Charles Moore, who thinks the licence fee should be slashed, also apparently wanted to be paid at least £280,000 of licence fee payers’ money to be BBC chairman