Media Watch: fears about data centres and worries about Christian nationalists

By Maggie Hall

Andrew Copson on The Moral Maze

Andrew Copson, Chief Executive of Humanists UK, has frequently taken part in the BBC Radio 4 programme The Moral Maze as a guest “witness”, but on 26 August he made his debut as a member of the panel. This meant that he was able to be an interviewer rather than an interviewee. The issue under discussion was the proliferation of data centres. His fellow panellists were Giles Fraser, Mona Siddiqui and Ella Whelan.

The “witnesses” they were interviewing were Owen Espley, Community Campaigns Manager at Global Action Plan; Michael Tobin, technology entrepreneur, author and philanthropist who was the CEO of Telecity Group; Carissa Véliz, associate professor of philosophy and ethics at the University of Oxford (Institute for Ethics in AI, Faculty of Philosophy) and Carlo Cordasco, assistant professor at Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester. 

The discussion centred around whether data centres should be viewed as the next technological leap forward for humanity or whether the immediate environmental costs – the demand for electricity, water and land – mean that we should pause and consider whether the promised rewards justify the sacrifices, especially where local communities are disrupted while the economic benefits go elsewhere.

The views expressed were certainly diverse with strong arguments on both sides. The consensus at the end was that AI is now with us and is not going away, but it does need to be regulated and this needs to be done in a democratic way rather than “being swept along by an AI 'arms race' we didn’t consent to”, to quote from the programme’s website.

Danny Tommo and his “Black Shorts” on the Private Eye Podcast

The Private Eye Podcast, Page 94, on 15 September included a discussion (at around 34:15) about the recent anti-immigrant demonstrations in Dover by the “black shorts”. This is the somewhat tongue-in-cheek name adopted by the Private Eye team for the rather sinister-looking black garbed and masked followers of Danny Tommo (“or Daniel Thomas as grown-ups might refer to him”). The conversation moves on to the link between these demonstrations and the rise of Christian nationalism in the UK. Page 94 is always a good listen, and this episode succeeds, as usual, in being both informative and entertaining.