Al Gore Wins Nobel Prize, Despite Film Inaccuracies

Al Gore, and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for “their efforts to build up and disseminate knowledge about man-made climate change”.

I think Al Gore deserves credit for his part in articulating the issues to the masses, although I did find his film “An Inconvenient Truth” over the top in places. The UK government seems to think it’s a good way to make responsible citizens out of the next generation as they decided to screen the film in more than 3,500 secondary schools. However, a school governor in Kent then objected to the film being shown to his children, because he said it contained inaccuracies and political propaganda.

Judge Michael Burton identified nine inaccuracies in the “political” film but ruled that it could still be shown if accompanied by guidance notes.

Swing Low Sweet Chariot

After England’s depressing 0-36 defeat against South Africa they’ve been getting their act together, culminating in the close-run 12-10 victory over Australia yesterday. England’s pack were very strong, while Jason Robinson took a beautiful inside pass from Simon Shaw to demonstrate that England can open up gaps.  Wilkinson’s kicking was good enough, although he missed an important kick in front of the posts at 75 minutes; fortunately Mortlock also missed a rather more distant attempt from half-way 2 minutes later.

After the South Africa game the post mortems involved talk about the lack of succession planning following the 2003 World Cup win for England, but yesterday the England team were fantastic.

To add to the Northern Hemisphere’s triumph, France also beat New Zealand. Currently, the bookmakers seem to be going for a SA v France final. I didn’t see France play yesterday, but I wouldn’t rule out England yet.

Taxpayers’ Information Stolen from Car of HMRC Employee

HM Revenue and Customs has had a laptop stolen from the car of one of its employees on 20th September, which contained details of at least 400 people involved in an audit and supplied by a number of financial institutions. HMRC are playing down the risk to taxpayers because the data was protected by “top-level encryption”, however according to yesterday’s Moneybox there was also a printout accompanying the laptop which contained individuals’ names and financial details.

HMRC are leaving it to the financial institutions to inform those affected.