Global warning has already hit the danger point that international attempts to curb it are designed to avoid, according to the world's top climate watchdog. Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told an international conference attended by 114 governments in Mauritius this month that he personally believes that the world has "already reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere" and called for immediate and "very deep" cuts in the pollution if humanity is to "survive".

Since the Chagos Islanders won the right to return to their homeland, following 30 years of exile, by historic Judgment of the High Court in November 2000, the Government has been claiming to know what to do about it. The same day as the Judgment, Robin Cook passed a new immigration law permitting those born on the islands and their children to return to all islands of the Archipelago except to Diego Garica where the US airbase is. But in June the Islanders' solicitor, Richard Gifford, was told, in a shock announcement without prior consultation, that the Government had now passed a new law totally banning all Chagossians from even stepping foot on their beloved homeland. Moreover the ban applied to all 65 islands.