Litvinenko and the new russian connection

In all the discussion about the late Mr Litvinenko and his untimely death we have heard all sorts of theories about who might have done it and why. The smart money is on some russian state sponsored assassins - after all, the Polonium 210 that he was poisoned with didn't exactly come from the local garden centre did it? In fact, I have it on good authority that there's only around 50 grammes of the stuff on the entire planet.

So why? Observers suggest that Litvinenko was little more than a nuisance to the russian government - so why bother? Well - elsewhere we have heard about our beloved energy minister (Malcolm Wickes) celebrating having secured our natural gas supplies with contracts to import gas from Russia. (Our own natural gas having been squandered in the race to heat up the planet.)

The Russians however, have already shown their willingness to use their gas as a political weapon earlier this year when they shut off supplies to the Ukraine. Is the British government going to give the Russians too much grief about assassinating people on British soil when the supplies of natural gas can be shut off at a moment's notice? I don't think so. So maybe Mr Putin was trying to make a point - the Cold War is history, he has the upper hand now.

Malcolm Wickes, as I pointed out earlier, is not as clever as he likes to think he is.

Road Pricing and carbon emissions

Road pricing has hit the news again - and I have to say I have some sympathy for the idea. But in the debate about taxation of vehicles according to their carbon emissions, or taxation of fuel there's a key issue that never seems to get a look in - alternative fuels.

Alternative fuels - biofuels, biodiesel are available right now. Existing diesel engines can run on them without modification. They are carbon neutral and engines running on them have incredibly low emissions. What's more they totally eliminate dependence on oil imported from places it's better not to be dependent on.

So, if the government were as keen to be green as they say they are why aren't they promoting biofuels and giving generous tax breaks to encourage their use. Come to that why not scrap the idea of road fuel taxes altogether and just replace them with a carbon tax on fossil fuels based purely on their fossil carbon content whether it's to be used as road fuel or any other purpose.

Could the reason be something called Shell, or BP, or Exxon...? Or could it be an old friend of mine Malcolm Wickes - the Energy Minister - who's probably right at this moment licking Tony Blair's backside and saying "Yes Sir, nuclear power, sir. Anything you say, sir." Or, as another old friend of mine - the late and very well respected Earl Conrad Russell once confided in me: "Malcolm Wickes isn't as clever as he likes to think he is."