Interesting times

In England times are starting to change, while Africa remains stuck.

Mugabe's regime can't even fiddle elections plausibly any more. Neighbouring countries' governments prefer the devil they know in Zimbabwe, an approach briskly clear of any values like the freedom and democracy they called for in throwing off their colonial oppressors. The worst of them is of course Thabo Mbeke. Peter Oborne has suggested some historical reasons for this but all the signs are that the man in his governing is an immoral wimp. And - as David Blair reminded us in The Telegraph - Mugabe has never been a democrat, always a thug.

In England, meanwhile, Matthew Parris is grandly dismissive of Gordon Brown. He accuses him of "a paralysing failure of intellectual confidence: a yawning absence of creativity. What was not absent was ambition." Parris is worth reading in full, but he's wrong. Brown does have an agenda, which is not just about calculations to further his political ambition born of vanity.

He's a statist. He believes he has the ability to improve Britain through micro-management. He truly is a stalinist, in that he sees people as objects that will respond to central state initiatives. He really does think he can reveal to the banks what it is they have to do.

Parris is right in noticing that Mr Brown doesn't articulate a big idea. That's not because he hasn't got one. It's because this big idea of his would spell political ridicule and doom for him and he knows it.

Our household has never seen any signs of Mr Brown's allegedly great intellect, so we welcome the curled lip of contempt appearing in media coverage. We also welcome the slowly emerging warmist realism drawn together by Philip Stott. The interesting BBC interview he mentions isn't about the theory of global warming (here are some chilly links), but rather about adaptation to climate changes. Do read Stott on Japan's energy resources - and the letter to the IPCC he links to. Even if you're pushed for time, look at the graph plotting temperature against carbon dioxide levels.

The trouble with our optimism, though, is that Mr Brown probably does believe that by heaping so called green taxes on our small country he can persuade the rest of the world to follow his moral lead, and that he will curb global warming.

Strange, then, that Mr Mugabe cares nothing for Mr Brown's opinions.