A remedy would be an Act to abolish all self-regulatory bodies, to prevent such being established, and to enable any regulations made by them to be reviewed by a court of law.Yours faithfully,R M C ARNOTWelwyn Garden City,Hertfordshire18 March. rom Mr R M C. Arnot

Sir: Recent events have highlighted the defects of self-regulation in business and in public life. However, no publicity appears to have been given to the fact that self-regulation is a manifest breach of the legal maxim Nemo judex in caura sua, a cardinal principle of natural justice providing that “no person should be the judge of his own cause”. This is a fundamental issue which should inform the deliberations of the Nolan Committee on Standards in Public Life.
In as much as many self-regulatory provisions have statutory force, their validity cannot be challenged by the courts. We cannot let the limiting assumptions of economics, which is, after all, the intellectual mentor of the Western paradigm, throw us off-course.Yours sincerely,SIMON SHACKLEYCentre for the Study ofEnvironmental ChangeLancaster UniversityLancaster28 March. Arguing that economic wealth guarantees the success of adaptive responses seems unduly complacent about the sorts of societies we thereby create and ignores the critical role of communities and co-operation in responding to change.The climate change issue is one of the few current opportunities for discussing whether we wish to continue with the increasingly dominant approach to development, and its understanding of the environment, provided by the industrialised countries.

Treating economic analysis as more certain than climate change science seems a bizarre article of faith in an increasingly contested discipline.One also wonders on what basis, she places so much confidence in the ability of societies to adapt to climate change, given the possibility of abrupt periods of climate change, especially if the climate system were to move into a quite different state. On the one hand, she stresses the scientific uncertainty of predicting climate change, and rightly so. But on the other hand, she treats economic analysis with far greater certainty; for example, quoting research which calculates the costs and benefits of taking action 150 years into the future.
Ms Cairncross also assumes that technologies will not change radically, yet the history of technical change points to their potential for massive and unpredictable effects on economies and societies. From Dr Simon Shackley

Sir: In her analysis of global warming (28 March), Frances Cairncross fails to move beyond an increasingly redundant economic framework. The only irony that New Labour’s critics might point out with any force is how much this message harks back to the party’s traditional roots and historic success.The writer is Labour MP for Hartlepool.. Mr Blair’s message of economic modernisation, social justice and strong communities appeals equally to the residents of Dyke House, Acacia Avenue and The Willows.

But this only shows how right we are to make Labour’s appeal not on the basis of class but on Labour’s values, and on our programme of national renewal.The mistake made by many political commentators is to assume that talk of responsibilities and duty, of a strong civic society backing up the individual and prudence in economic policy, are food only for chattering folk. Many middle-class people are now experiencing the same sort of insecurity and unhappiness that used to be the preserve of working-class people. Many working-class people see themselves as middle class, and certainly aspire to be so. Today, the polls show a remarkable recovery in both middle and working-class support.Middle-class voters have come to New Labour not at the expense of working- class voters but because we are consciously speaking up for the majority: the people’s party is back.Those who argue, therefore, that Mr Blair’s recent speeches mean that he has “given up on the working class”, as Arthur Scargill said in a debate with me the other day, have entirely missed the point.Both groups want secure employment, high-quality, reliable public services, streets free from crime, and a sense of fairness brought back to government and society.Of course definitions of class are difficult, because society is far more complex than it once was. In 1987, Neil Kinnock arrested this slide, gaining 45 per cent of working-class support; by 1992, Labour was back up to 51 per cent.By comparison, the movement in middle-class support was much smaller over the same period. The central drive to modernise the Labour Party has come from the need to regain the support of both groups.In Labour’s heyday, working-class support ran at about 70 per cent. By 1983, when the party was at its most extreme and unworldly, this figure had fallen to 42 per cent.