Friday, 11 March 2011

The Johann Hari Podcast: Episode 1 - The Dalai Lama called me fat!

Cube

(GB2011) Energy policy role at No 10 for former BP man

Downing Street is set to appoint former BP employee Ben Moxham to head up its energy and environment policy, as one of nine new policy advisers due to beef up No 10.

Moxham is currently employed at the Riverstone private equity group run by former BP boss Lord John Browne, which specialises in oil and renewable energy investment.

The 31-year-old has been put forward on a shortlist of one to David Cameron and Nick Clegg for approval, having been vetted by an impartial civil service appointment process. The two party leaders will meet six civil service candidates and three private sector recruits, of which Moxham is one, in the final round of the process to bring nine extra policy experts into government. All will be appointed as civil servants in order not to breach Cameron's stipulation on the number of political appointees.

The new advisers are intended to bulk up the No 10 policy unit. Cameron had said he wanted his tenure as prime minister to be hands-off but recent fiascos over the attempted sell-off of forests and the concern about the NHS convinced him to reinforce his policy specialists at the heart of government. The new recruits will "man-mark" their respective ministries and draw up policies for the second half of the current parliament, when the coalition agreement will have run out of specific policy road.

Downing Street is happy with Moxham's shortlisting by the civil service, pointing to his experience heading up the alternative energy department at BP under Browne. The government regards its energy policy increasingly to be the implementation of the kind of renewables agenda Moxham took charge of when at BP.

Moxham was a founding member of the team of BP Alternative Energy as its director of policy, looking after BP's interests in renewables, gas power, and carbon capture and storage.

While Moxham will have been key in helping BP move "beyond petroleum", as its strapline became, there were some concerns among environmental campaigners that BP's alternative energy department was ill-fated. The unit run by Moxham was shut down in June 2009.

Allegra Stratton @'The Guardian'

David Simon, Creator of The Wire, Speaks on Felicia "Snoop" Pearson's Arrest

"First of all, Felicia's entitled to the presumption of innocence. And I would note that a previous, but recent drug arrest that targeted her was later found to be unwarranted and the charges were dropped. Nonetheless, I'm certainly sad at the news today. This young lady has, from her earliest moments, had one of the hardest lives imaginable. And whatever good fortune came from her role in The Wire seems, in retrospect, limited to that project. She worked hard as an actor and was entirely professional, but the entertainment industry as a whole does not offer a great many roles for those who can portray people from the other America. There are, in fact, relatively few stories told about the other America.
Beyond that, I am waiting to see whether the charges against Felicia relate to heroin or marijuana. Obviously, the former would be, to my mind, a far more serious matter. And further, I am waiting to see if the charges or statement of facts offered by the government reflect any involvement with acts of violence, which would of course be of much greater concern..."