We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, but by the time they reach adulthood engineers understand technology better than politicians. If this is not self-evident to you, dear reader, please watch the presentation given by Jacque Fresco in Bristol, UK on August 21st 2010. Jacque's views on politicians are forcefully expressed at around 44:44 into the 3 and a bit hour video:

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As the G20 leaders start their deliberations in Cannes today some more famous names have been putting their weight behind the campaign to introduce some kind of financial transaction tax.  On Tuesday the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams,  joined Pope Benedict XVI in calling for the introduction of what he referred to in an article in the Financial Times as

More on United Nations and Rowan Williams Join the "Robin Hood Tax" Campaign

Earlier today I drove Kasia from Exeter to Bristol Airport, to catch the Ryanair flight to Poznan. She's going back to Poland for a few weeks to see her family, and part of mine!  We left in plenty of time, just in case our previous experience of long delays on the M5 motorway was repeated. As we left I grabbed my green rucksack, still full of Contemporary Art in the Community kit from our last trip. As luck would have it, whilst there was lots of rain to contend with, there were no significant delays.  Just for a change the EasyJet queue to check-in hold luggage at Bristol was almost non-existent, but the Ryanair queue was perhaps ten minutes:

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The next summit meeting of the leaders of the G20 nations takes place next week in Cannes, and the global financial crisis is top of the agenda. A variety of people from around the world are pressuring the G20 leaders to introduce a "tax on bankers". Such a tax has been discussed over the years under a variety of aliases, including "Tobin Tax" and "Financial Transaction Tax". However here in the UK currently the most popular euphemism for the idea is "Robin Hood Tax". Here's a video in which the team of Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy (of Love Actually fame) present their interpretation of the concept:

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