Will the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali this week give us Contraction and Convergence? Then, will it be implemented as carbon rationing or personal carbon trading? Will the decresing annual ration give a form of demurrage (negative interest; with thanks to Cllr Dr Rupert Read)? By the way, the Joint Public Issues Team of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church, and the United Reformed Church urges Britons to write their Members of Parliament about the Climate Change Bill.

Following Clive Lord et al.’s idea about citizen’s income, in this issue of New Left Review, Robin Blackburn proposes a universal pension of 1 USD per day. Can we have a universal ‘human rights’ income, on the strength of Article 25.1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? (Dream on.)

In this week, as European Union heads of governments signed the Lisbon Treaty, I read the draft constitution of Corsica by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (with thanks to Dr Bob Purdie).

‘Home economics’ is a redundant phrase.