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Groundhog Day - The End?

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I love the film Groundhog Day. The combination of Bill Murray's priceless hangdog face with a great plot conceit make it one of the more enjoyable hours and half on a screen. The story of a man stuck in the same day attempting to achieve the near impossible clearly also makes the romantic comedy excellent analogy-fodder. So it is for the struggle this decade for anyone - politician, industry leader, environmentalist - to get any grip on our leaking and creaking stock of existing buildings. There have been the equivalent of 18 Groundog Days for the existing stock so far this century in the form of Government reviews, inquiries, reports and white papers etc. What price the Existing Stock Groundhog Day spell being broken?

Is our Pursuit of the Millennium pointless?

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I managed to get through A Green New Deal report released by the new economics foundation over the weekend, in between Olympics viewing and a niece's first birthday party. It's a utopian vision that draws on historical precedent to call for some pretty revolutionary activity to tackle climate change. And there's the usual urgent deadlines - we have 100 months to carry out such a plan before it's too late and the Government has a year to start to implement the proposals, many of which are by necessity pretty profound. Forced demerger of large banking and finance groups anyone? An orderly downsizing of the financial sector and reducing interest rates to a lower value? No wonder it has already inspired snorts of derision from libertaian thinkers, including Tim Wortsall.

Lessons from Southwold for Gordon

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I write with some authority on Gordon Brown's Suffolk holiday retreat, Southwold. My parents part owned a house there during the 80s and 90s and its coastal charms inspire some wistful memories. The current Prime Minister received a heap of flak for such a choice of resort, which is indicative of just how big a hole he is in at present, politically speaking. Presumably prior to when everything went completely pear-shaped for his administration Brown's decision to rest and recuperate in East Anglia would have been seen as the sustainable and prudent choice of a leader fully supportive of homegrown tourism. But while he's there I wonder whether Gordon will ponder a few lessons that Southwold has to offer while he pops in for a pint in the Lord Nelson or during a brisk walk to neighbouring to Walberswick. Here's a few tips for his trip:

BBC2 steps up

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I sat down in front of the first part of BBC2's new two-part eco/oil drama Burn Up with some trepidation. Were we going to be served up with a rather simplistic cliche ridden run through the great global warming debate? Would there be some buttock clenching moments where characters would need to talk us through the arguments or talk down to us? Well in fact it turned out to be rather good. In fact it was probably one of the best UK political dramas I've seen on since State of Play.

The new message - get real

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In ever toughening times it’s especially important for us to get real about sustainability. What do I mean by that? Well, we’ve had the ambition shoved down our throats, which may have had some use to get us all over-excited and ambitious in our pursuit of excellence – yes I’m referring to that shiny colourful rainbow that is zero carbon. But we now need to knuckle down and concentrate on the detail. Only then can the fallacious view of going green as somehow a side-issue or expendable when compared to imminent threats such as an impending recession.

Should we carbonize interest rates?

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Inflation is much in the news. In fact, in the past two or three weeks it’s come to take centre stage in the discussions about where interest rates are headed and what we should do about it. The Bank of England is charged with keeping the inflation rate down below 2%. Currently it’s much higher, and seems to be headed higher still.

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But the published, official inflation rate is a strange beast and it’s not at all clear exactly what it measures. It’s based on the idea that there is a shopping basket of goods that represents what Mr and Mrs Average Briton might spend their money on.

Political and artistic principles

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We live in unusual times. It's somewhat disconcerting to find unanimity between Bristol group Massive Attack and former shadow home secretary David Davis. I witnessed the former communicate their anger at the erosion of civil liberties on our shores last night at a show they performed at the Royal Festival Hall. And this morning I watched Davis proclaim the same message passionately on the Andrew Marr show. He appears to have blindsided everyone at Westminster by a decision to resign this week and call a by-election in his constituency that he stresses is based on pure principle. Cue continued head scratching amongst colleagues and commentator alike as to quite why he's taken this course of action.

We salute Alan Simpson

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To the launch of the Existing Homes Alliance yesterday at Portcullis House. The new coalition lobbying for urgent action to refurbish completed properties had hoped to attract housing minister Caroline Flint to the event, but she was a no show. Perhaps a relief for a packed audience of over 100 passionate professionals, academics and lobbyists, who have heard precious little proper policy with regard to this agenda. In stepped Nottingham South MP Alan Simpson to the breach. Quite a performance.

Thoughts on oil

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Have oil prices gone up of late? It's a story that has created something of a frenzy amongst commentators and now with hauliers in France and the UK. Newsnight presed the panic button last night, linking oil prices with the collapse of the green agenda in a pretty-poorly constructed lead item to add fuel to the fire. A more intelligent and better argument may be that while we may have not reached peak oil the oil industry has reached a turning point, as author Daniel Yergin does in this morning's Financial Times.

Green business site

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I've as yet not been keeping close enough tabs on the London mayoral election as yet, barring some of the knockabout stuff on the radio and TV. Picking up Friday's Standard I noticed a rather inconsequential but handy antidote to the political mud-slinging. Green Party candidate Sian Berry has launched a site called Green Means Business which is a directory of sustainable companies. Not world-changing but a significant shift to encourage more of a mainstream approach to environmental issues.