I was wondering what to write about yesterday's collapse of the Doha Round of the WTO but Matt, in his The Longer View, has beaten me to it. I really don't have anything to add to what he has said about it at the moment so I happily refer you to his comments.
I do, however, have a view on the recent destruction by eco terrorists of the GM potato trials on a field near Tadcaster in Yorkshire. I met the Leeds University scientist in charge of the trials at a conference a few weeks ago. He was a hard working and genuine researcher whose main aim in life was clearly to establish the facts on the trials he was conducting.
I think he had a premonition of what might happen to his plots. He was concerned even then at publication of the location of the trials and hoped the anti GM brigade would allow the crop to reach maturity so he could publish the truth - whatever that turned out to be.
His reaction to the destruction of the trial - that it was Luddite and akin to the burning of books that did not co-incide with Nazi philosophy in the 1930's - was understandable, given his frustration. It has been criticised as being too harsh. But what the critics really mean is that it was politically incorrect. For who can seriously fault the professor's reasoning.
If the trials had proved that GM potatoes were resistant to cyst nematodes that are costing UK potato growers £50mill/year to try to control with chemicals they would have provided yet more evidence that this technology should be adopted here. And the ability to use GM crop varieties like those grown on some 120mill hectares around the world last year would have provided an incentive and a more level playing field for UK farmers to support any fresh attempt to re-establish talks on free trade.