Note: This piece needs to be treated with care. I was the victim of a sophisticated hoax. I apologize to anybody who was mislead. But I’m leaving the post here as a spoof of a spoof. It shows how even if the anti-Shell campaigning trickesters got their way, it would not address the problems in Nigeria in a sensible or realistic manner but would actually make things worse.

Yesterday “Shell” (go to hoax press release) said it was going to clean up the Niger Delta, compensate local communities for past injuries, and institute a local stakeholders’ program that will help lift the region out of poverty. That sounds like good news. But what if the real victim is the truth? Read on ›

At the Senate hearing into the Gulf of Mexico oil spill BP, Transocean and Halliburton disputed each other’s account of what caused the accident. It was a messy affair. But in it I glimpsed the makings of a much-needed corrective PR campaign. Read on ›

Here’s the second in my trilogy on the Stockholm Accords. This one deals with the Accords themselves, following part 1’s examination of their definition of terms. Read on ›

This is for everyone interested in the Stockholm Accords and the debate about the future of PR. This is a good moment to talk sensibly and creatively. But I fear a herd instinct is taking us in the wrong direction. (It’s a herd instinct that’s also over-intellectualised, if you’ll forgive the contradiction in terms.) Read on ›

Gordon Brown’s “Bigotgate” gaffe was fabulous. He’s caught complaining that his staff put him with the wrong sort of elector (having said he was opening himself to all comers) and then says he misunderstood what Mrs Duffy was saying. What’s to learn? Read on ›

Horizon, the BBC’s science flagship has – rather belatedly – reported research which suggests that low-level radiation is not a risk to humans. This should reassure people worried about the “victims” of Chernobyl and the danger posed by the rest of the nuclear power industry. Read on ›

Dateline 1995: As the world prepared for the 10th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world’s media began a memorial feast of disaster stories. Here I review three classic examples. Read on ›

Present energy technologies all pose long-term “problems”. These are called “inter-generational” risks. So let’s not kid ourselves: whether it’s climate change or radioactive waste, decisions we take now will effect our grandchildren, and their grandchildren. Read on ›

Veteran journalist Martin Bell’s account of the TMI accident of 1979 relied on his own memories of the event and on archive material and fresh interviewing, but Bell has ignored a mass of evidence, which would tell a very different tale to the one broadcast on 17 June, 2006, in BBC Radio 4’s Archive Hour. Read on ›

This essay exposes a few misconceptions and speculates that 50 years of living with nuclear power may be producing a greater respect for it, and less awe. Read on ›