Copy-right? No, STILL wrong!

SAME OLD SUBJECT – same depressing lack of any glimpses of sanity from the Government.

Not that there has been any lack of pressure being applied. The most recent articulation of opposition to the Government's feeble stance has come in the form of a letter signed by a checklist of the most pre-eminent names in the UK cultural world.

Musicians, writers, publishers – you name them, they are all there - some 400 of them.

The latest move came in an attempt to persaude the House of Lords to accept an amendment to the data bill going through parliament that would give a little more strength to creatives to orevent their work being hijacked by the tech giants for their own grubby gain.

The letter, organised by the cross bench peer Beeban Kidron, argues that “we will lose an immense growth oppoortunity if we give our work away at the behest oif a handful of powerful overseas tech companies, and with it our future income, the UK's posititoin as a creative powerhoiuse and any hope that the technology of daily life will embody the values and laws of the United Kingdom.”

If past record is anything to go by, there seemed depressingly little prospect that this approach would fare any better than previous appeals to good sense

Sir Keir and his pals appear to have a touching belief that all will turn out for the best in a golden age of technology and the big tech companies will suddenly discover a hitherto hidden vein of altruism and society as a whole will benefit.

Oh yeah? Of course we need to be alert to the benefits that AI can bring, but we must ensure that we exercise a little more control over the tech giants than has happened in the past.

Social media is still operating in a wild west jungle, being allowed to get away with, if not murder, terrible damage to young people and vulnerable members of society.

To make matters worse, it seems highly probable that, in a desperate attempt to shelter from the Trump wrecking ball, any feeble attempt to hold big tech to account for revenue owing will be abandoned. Ugh!

Summer still at Summerhall?

WHILE ANY hard and fast 'official' information is proving hard to come by, it would appear that the future of Summerhall, widely regarded as the 'largest independent arts complex in Europe' is becoming clearer.

According to information coming from the Edinburgh Inquirer Substack site, the site has been bought by an upmarket Edinburgh residential property developer, believed to be AMA Homes. Their website lists, amongst residences for sale, one with a price ticket of £2.5m (It's in Belford Road, if you think it might meet your needs!)

While the original Summerhall seemed to many like a vision of the promised land, there was also the nagging suspicion that somehow gravity was being defied and in the end the old rules would eventually start to apply.

Realistically, the site is big enough for a variety of needs to be met. The idealistic vision of Summerhall's first director, Robert McDowell, can live on, albeit on a somewhat reduced scale.

Whatever happens, we must be grateful to have been lucky enough to experience what surely must have been a golden age.

Let's hope the future is equally inspiring. It could be.

Net-zero gains from over-optimism

FAR FROM moderating their approach in the face of ever wider scepticism, the Government seem ever more intent on reaching their net zero goal without making any course adjustments.

The zeal with which Mr Milliband approaches the subject would be touching if it were not so disturbing. Even the inroads being made by the ghastly Reformers wth their 'Net-Stupid-Zero' slogan seem to be having net zero effect.

Okay to destroy the North Sea oil business and promise a whole raft of non-existent 'green' jobs. Okay to make rose-tinted projections about the performance of heat pumps without admitting any of their possible drawbacks or shortcomings.

And what about the golden age of nuclear power, which is just round the corner?

Don't mention the ever-spiralling constructions costs, the ever-growing piles of radioactive waste - and don't, at any cost, question the robustness of the oranium supply chain.

An increasingly sceptical public could be brought back on board with a more honest, realistic discussion of the optioins, with more balanced accpetance of the challenges.

And believing the world will follow our 'inspired' lead is for the fairies.