MIsc

So, the Irish are voting on the Lisbon treaty today. This may not sound significant to people not strangled by the mass of red tape that is the EU, but Ireland is the only country holding a referendum on the issue. And since all countries must ratify the treaty for it to become active, all eyes are upon them. The Irish are pretty pro Europe, but things are not cut and dried. They will almost certainly vote in favour of the treaty (sadly) but it will be close. I don't know when the result will come out.

Yesterday was another bad day for the PM. He did win his 42 day detention vote, but the government (majority of 65) won by only 9 votes. What's more, those 9 votes came from the DUP. Then, just as it was being hailed as a victory in the fight against terrorism, it emerged that a cabinet office official managed to leave two top secret, terrorist related, intelligence dossiers on a London commuter train. It makes you wonder exactly how important the cabinet regard the fight against terrorism doesn't it.

There is much speculation about why the DUP decided to support the government on this issue after a last minute meeting with Gordon Brown. Both DUP and the PM swear blind that no deal was struck, but I think most people are convinced the votes were bought.

The Shadow Home Secretary, David Davis (I quite like him) has just resigned over the 42 day thing. He thinks the Conservative leader should have been tougher. I think I agree. He's standing down to force a by election in his constituency. He will then stand as a candidate again, hoping to be re-elected on the back of his civil rights stance. I think there are better ways he could have played it, but you have to admire the man I suppose. He can't fail to win his seat back. The Lib Dems are siding with him (!?) and are not intending to enter a candidate. And Labour can't possibly reverse the 5,000 vote majority achieved at the last election.

It does seem as though the story of David Davis in a rift with the Tory leader is only being reported by the BBC. The Telegraph seems to be suggesting that Davis' only problem is with the Labour party. Davis didn't mention any rift with Cameron when he made his resignation speech. He only issued a challenge to the Labour party, urging them to fight him at the by election and make it a civil rights issue.

There was an interesting thing in the Telegraph this morning. According to the research of Prof. Richard Lynn, people with higher IQs are less likely to believe in God. I wanted to agree with the guy, but his research doesn't appear to hold up very well in my view. He claims that academics are statistically less likely to believe in God. He's not the first to say it. Richard Dawkins often makes the same claim for instance. He then goes on to say that academics have higher IQs and it is this that makes them less likely to have faith. But, he does not establish a causal link between intelligence and atheism in my view. He only establishes a correlation between education and atheism, and between education and higher IQs. He's made controversial claims in the past.

He also points put that young children are likely to believe in God, but more likely to question it as their intelligence develops. That reinforces the correlation between education and atheism I think. Young children will believe almost anything, because they have little education. As they become educated, they question things more. It's not just intelligence. I'm still thinking about it. It depends how you define intelligence doesn't it? One could argue that intelligence never develops. You just add knowledge.