Time for a Bold EU

Like many of you, I've just watched the news. Ben Ali was deposed in Tunisia but Mubarak wants to cling on.

The US President seems at a loss to deal with the situation. Robert Fisk writes well here. The Saudi Arabian regime seemed desperate to keep Mubarak in place and the Israeli government is understandably nervous.

Our own government hasn't done much, with William Hague's recent comments simply ridiculous:

"Amidst the opportunity for countries like Tunisia and Egypt, there is a legitimate fear that the Middle East peace process will lose further momentum and be put to one side, and will be a casualty of uncertainty in the region."

In case he hadn't noticed, the continued building of settlements on the West Bank, the Wikileaks revelations and the fact that reports like the ones Keith Taylor is responding to, fuel resentment and anger, serving as a recruiting agent for extreme groups. There has to be an alternative way forward.

There is an opportunity here. The EU with its not insignificant economic power but which has lost its direction and purpose, has to seize this opportunity to put forward a new vision, of Mediterranean states working together, ending old animosities and building a peaceful future.

A fully democratic North Africa and Middle East is a vision worth pursuing. Economic aid, preferential trade deals and tourism are the incentives that should be extended to those states that choose freedom, democracy and peaceful development.

Unfortunately I fear that as usual our EU leaders will be slow to grasp the significance of what could be achieved. I hope I am proved wrong.

Cutting No Ice With Deniers

One of the usual denier tactics when we talk about ice melt in the Arctic is to point to Antarctica and say that the ice cover is growing there. It has been the case that coverage has recently been above average, due to fairly well understood weather patterns. That isn't the case now. Antarctic ice coverage is now at its average extent.

There isn't a lot of good news on our side of the world though. Next month the ice begins to retreat, and as reported here at Arctic Sea Ice News and Analysis, Arctic Sea Ice is currently at its lowest ever extent. While inhabitants of Clarkson World (copyright excellent Robert Webb article in the Telegraph) will no doubt have their own "scientific" explanations, there is simply going to come a time when they will be as absurd as flat earthers.