The Rev Rod Thomas, the leader of the conservative evangelical group Reform and a member of the General Synod, said: 'I feel deeply ashamed that this is happening in the Anglican Church. I THINK A SCHISM IS ABSOLUTELY INEVITABLE.' But St Paul's Cathedral's Canon Chancellor Giles Fraser, a leading liberal, said: 'THIS IS ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF CHRISTIAN HOMOPHOBIA.'

Canon Glasspool, 55, has openly stated that she has lived with her partner, Becki Sander, since 1988. American Gene Robinson became the first gay Anglican bishop in 2003.

Although they account for less than 5% of staff in RBS's investment division, the traders and corporate financiers who have been lured away are estimated to have earned it between £600m and £700m last year — almost 8% of its 2008 income. A stand-off with the government over the payment of bonuses for 2009 threatens to spark a fresh wave of resignations in the new year, according to banking sources.

The rate of departures is believed to have been accelerated by the storm over bonuses. To stem the tide, the RBS board wants to boost the bonus pool at the investment bank by at least 50%, to about £1.5 billion. The board believes that profits generated by the investment bank, which employs 14,000 people, are vital to getting money back for taxpayers — who will soon own 84% of RBS as the state's stake rises. Although Gordon Brown has indicated that RBS will not be discriminated against in the government's bonus crackdown, Treasury sources have suggested that an increase on last year's bonus pool is unlikely.

ANY BONUSES PAID OUT BY RBS ARE LIKELY TO SPARK A PUBLIC OUTCRY in the present economic climate. Many large British companies have enforced pay freezes on staff to help ride out the recession. Investment banks, however, are enjoying a boom in profits due to the loss of competition in the sector after the demise of Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns, and because of the trillions of pounds in financial stimulus pumped into the system by governments around the world. Threats by regulators to clamp down on bonuses have encouraged banks to raise salaries instead. BARCLAYS CAPITAL LAST WEEK TOLD SOME STAFF TO EXPECT PAY TO DOUBLE — AND THE RISE WOULD BE BACKDATED TO JUNE.

On a normal day, Majken Friss Jorgensen, managing director of Copenhagen's biggest limousine company, says her firm has twelve vehicles on the road. During the "summit to save the world", which opens here tomorrow, she will have 200. "WE THOUGHT THEY WERE NOT GOING TO HAVE MANY CARS, DUE TO IT BEING A CLIMATE CONVENTION," she says. "But it seems that somebody last week looked at the weather report."

Ms Jorgensen reckons that between her and her rivals the total number of limos in Copenhagen next week has already broken the 1,200 barrier. The French alone rang up on Thursday and ordered another 42. "We haven't got enough limos in the country to fulfil the demand," she says. "WE'RE HAVING TO DRIVE THEM IN HUNDREDS OF MILES FROM GERMANY AND SWEDEN."

AND THE TOTAL NUMBER OF ELECTRIC CARS OR HYBRIDS AMONG THAT NUMBER? "Five," says Ms Jorgensen. "The government has some alternative fuel cars but the rest will be petrol or diesel. We don't have any hybrids in Denmark, unfortunately, due to the extreme taxes on those cars. It makes no sense at all, but it's very Danish."

As well 15,000 delegates and officials, 5,000 journalists and 98 world leaders, the Danish capital will be blessed by the presence of Leonardo DiCaprio, Daryl Hannah, Helena Christensen, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Prince Charles. A Republican US senator, Jim Inhofe, is jetting in at the head of an anti-climate-change "Truth Squad." THE TOP HOTELS – ALL FULLY BOOKED AT £650 A NIGHT – are readying their Climate Convention menus of (no doubt sustainable) scallops, foie gras and sculpted caviar wedges. The hot air this week will be massive…

Figures released by the Department of Health reveal that 20,247 WOMEN UNDER 25 HAD A REPREAT ABORTION - with 5,000 of those being teenagers. The alarmingly high numbers were released to the Conservative shadow health minister Anne Milton in answer to a Parliamentary Question. She said that they demonstrated the "failure" of government policy.

"These figures demonstrate the Government's failure to produce a coherent and effective sexual health policy for England," said Mrs Milton, a former nurse. "It is of huge concern that such a high number are having repeat abortions. Why is it that we are not able to reduce the number of young girls who not only end up with one unwanted pregnancy, but then just go back and have another?"

But NHS statistics show that around 3,800 women have had four or more abortions, AND THAT ABOUT A THIRD OF ALL LAST YEAR'S 195,296 TERMINATIONS IN ENGLAND AND WALES WERE REPEAT ABORTIONS. In all, 46,336 unattached women of all ages ended a pregnancy for at least the second time in 2008, as did 9,536 married women, of whom 5,774 were under 35 and 3,762 older, according to the answers. A further 6,304 whose marital status was classed as "other/not known" did the same, pushing the overall total to 62,176.

After suffering the long delay and a lengthy queue to be served, Mr Haynes was understandably hungry. He saw some egg sandwiches on sale behind the bar that looked appetising, but when the 58-year-old came to order he was astonished to be told he couldn't buy one. Mr Haynes explained that he was not trying to get a free meal and was happy to pay, BUT THE STEWARD AGAIN TOLD HIM THAT HE COULD NOT SELL HIM A SANDWICH.

Recalling the bizarre exchange yesterday, Mr Haynes said: 'When I asked the man why not he said it was for health and safety reasons. I told him I didn't understand how health and safety came into selling a hungry stranded passenger an egg sandwich on a broken-down train.'

Mr Haynes said that when he asked for an explanation a second time, the steward replied: 'Don't you see? IF THE TRAIN HAS TO BE EVACUATED YOU COULD CHOKE TO DEATH ON THE SANDWICH.' Mr Haynes, a bar manager himself, said: 'I've never, ever heard anything so ludicrous in my life. There was a queue of people behind me and they all looked shocked.'

They have also engaged lawyers to write to Attorney General Baroness Scotland and the coroner Nicholas Gardiner calling for a full re-examination of the circumstances of his death. The doctors are asking for permission to go to the High Court to reopen the inquest on the grounds that it was improperly suspended. If Baroness Scotland rejects that demand, or the court turns them down, their lawyers say they will have grounds TO SEEK JUDICIAL REVIEW OF THE DECISION.

Dr Kelly was found dead at a beauty spot near his Oxfordshire home in 2003, days after he was exposed as the source of a story that Tony Blair's government 'sexed-up' its dossier on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction to justify invading Iraq. In one final phone conversation, he told a caller he wouldn't be surprised 'if my body was found in the woods'. The inquest into Dr Kelly's death was suspended before it could begin by order of the then Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer. He used the Coroners Act to designate the Hutton Inquiry as 'fulfilling the function of an inquest'. LORD FALCONER, A FORMER FLATMATE OF TONY BLAIR, WAS ALSO RESPONSIBLE FOR PICKING LORD HUTTON TO RUN THE INQUIRY.

Lord Hutton concluded that Dr Kelly killed himself by severing an ulnar artery in his left wrist after taking an overdose of prescription painkillers but he skated over the controversies about the causes of death. The bulk of his report was dedicated to the political row between Downing Street and the BBC, which revealed the sexing-up of the dossier. Dr Kelly's death certificate states that he died of a haemorrhage, but the results of a post mortem examination have never been made public. Crucially, the doctors say that Lord Hutton had no witnesses on oath and did not have to make a finding, as the coroner does, beyond a reasonable doubt.

Others have voluntarily moved to part-time positions rather than lose their jobs, with official statistics showing a record one million people who want to work full time are now unable to secure anything other than reduced hours work. The Treasury calculates that by accepting these measures 1.7 million who might have been made redundant in the recession have been saved from the dole queue.

HOWEVER, AS A RESULT INCOME TAX RECEIPTS HAVE COLLAPSED.

The consequence is that the Government will next week confirm that it is facing THE BIGGEST PEACETIME DEFICIT IN HISTORY, with the amount it is set to borrow this year alone set to be close to £180 billion - the equivalent of the entire NHS and education budgets combined.

What European leaders fail to mention is that TWO-THIRDS OF THE EU'S CARBON DIOXIDE REDUCTION IS ACCOUNTED FOR BY CARBON CREDITS: investments in projects in the developing world that count towards a rich country's own greenhouse gas reduction commitment. And many of those carbon credits don't lead to any CO2 reduction at all.

The Kyoto protocol set up a system of trading in carbon credits called the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). In return for investing in clean technology in poor countries, rich countries are granted 'certified emissions reductions' or carbon credits. For instance, investing in a CO2 reducing project in Mexico gives the Netherlands the right to emit more CO2 at home. The logic behind carbon credits is that it doesn't matter where on the planet CO2 emission is reduced so long as it is reduced. So why not do it where it can be done cheaper?

IN PRACTICE, HOWEVER, CARBON CREDITS HAVE BECOME A BIG SWINDLE. CDM has resulted in little to no reduction in CO2 emissions. The credits are used mainly to pour money into energy projects that would have been carried out regardless of Western funding. LESS THAN 10 PERCENT OF CDM PROJECTS ARE EVEN DIRECTED AT SAVING ENERGY.

The importance of carbon credits to the negotiations in Copenhagen cannot be underestimated. They allow the EU countries to pat themselves on the back for committing to a 30 percent carbon dioxide reduction. What the European leaders never mention is that EU member countries have agreed among themselves that TWO-THIRDS OF THIS REDUCTION WILL BE ACHIEVED BY BUYING CARBON CREDITS in CDM projects in the developing world. SO EUROPE IS REALLY COMMITTING TO ONLY A 10 PERCENT REDUCTION BY 2020 AS COMPARED TO 1990.

If we want real climate change it is crucial for the European economy to change drastically both by saving energy and by generating renewable energy in substantial quantities in Europe itself. What is Europe's promise in Copenhagen to reduce greenhouse gases by 30 percent really worth if it plans to achieve that promise BY BUYING UP FAKE CREDITS ABROAD, WHILE REFUSING TO TAKE POLITICALLY CHALLENGING CLIMATE MEASURES AT HOME?

The two-decade compilation "Better Off Red" reveals trends in coverage – from glowing reports of Soviet dictator Mikhail Gorbachev to perverse arguments that the end of communism was a setback for human rights – and cites dozens of liberal, pro-communist accounts. Lowlights include:

• CBS anchor Dan Rather asserting in 1987 that "Despite what many Americans think, most Soviets do not yearn for capitalism or Western-style democracy."

• NBC's John Chancellor lecturing that "the problem isn't communism; nobody even talked about communism this week. The problem is shortages," as the Soviet coup unraveled in 1991.

• Time magazine's Strobe Talbott claiming the threat of totalitarian communism never even existed as he reported "Gorbachev is helping the West by showing that the Soviet threat isn't what it used to be, and what's more that it never was."

• CBS's Harry Smith scorned that "Yes, somehow, Soviet citizens are freer these days — freer to kill one another, freer to hate Jews," in 1990. "Doing away with totalitarianism and adding a dash of democracy seems an unlikely cure for all that ails the Soviet system."

MRC President Brent Bozell commented on the compilation: "The collapse of the Berlin Wall was the official END OF A BRUTAL AND VICIOUS DICTATORSHIP. But unfortunately for too many in the media, it was just THE START OF A SHAMEFUL TIRADE AGAINST CAPITALISM.

"This report shows the depths to which some 'reporters' went to cast a favorable light on communism. Their alarming distortions should offend those who suffered the nightmare of the Soviet Union and its satellite regimes in East Germany and across Eastern Europe. It should also enrage those of us WHOSE CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN WILL HAVE TO RELY ON MEDIA FOR A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT.

Perhaps it is that ABC, NBC and CBS have not yet heard of the story, DESPITE TWO WEEKS OF NON-STOP REPORTING ON AND DISCUSSION OF CLIMATEGATE IN A WHOLE HOST OF MEDIA OUTLETS. Perhaps the broadcast networks only trust their fellow liberal press outlets, like the New York Times. Perhaps they don't realize the Times exhibited journalistic diligence on ClimateGate, with a front page story the day the story broke.

In the event that ABC News, NBC News and CBS News missed the news, the Media Research Center (MRC) is today rushing each of them a copy of the Times story, in the hopes that armed with this new information, THEY WILL FINALLY REPORT A STORY THAT HAS BEEN ROILING NEARLY EVERYWHERE ELSE FOR A FORTNIGHT. So as not to offend the networks' pro-global warming sensibilities, MRC President Brent Bozell is looking to have the stories delivered by bicycle messenger.

Australia's Senate rejects Emissions Trading Scheme for a second time. Or: so turkeys don't vote Christmas. Expect to see a lot more of this: politicians starting to become aware their party's position on AGW is COMPLETELY OUT OF KILTER WITH THE PUBLIC MOOD AND ECONOMIC REALITY. Kevin Rudd's Emissions Trading Scheme – what Andrew Bolt calls "A $114 BILLION GREEN TAX ON EVERYTHING" – would have wreaked havoc on the coal-dependent Australian economy. That's why several opposition Liberal frontbenchers resigned rather than vote with the Government on ETS; why Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull lost his job; and why the Senate voted down the ETS.

DANES CAUGHT FIDDLING THEIR CARBON CREDITS. (Hat tip: Philip Stott) Carbon trading is the Emperor's New Clothes of international finance. IT WAS INVENTED BY NONE OTHER THAN KEN LAY, WHOSE ENRON WOULD CURRENTLY BE ONE OF THE PRIME BENEFICIARIES in the global alternative energy market, if it hadn't been shown to be (nearly) as fraudulent as the current AGW scam. IT IS A LICENCE TO FLEECE, CHEAT AND ROB. Still, jolly embarrassing for the Danes to get caught red handed, what with their hosting a conference shortly in which the world's leaders will try, straight-faced, to persuade us that carbon emissions trading is the only viable way of defeating ManBearPig.

LEGAL ACTIONS AHOY! Over the next few weeks, one thing we can be absolutely certain of is concerted efforts by the rich, powerful and influential AGW lobby to squash the Climategate story. We've seen this already in the "nothing to see here" response of Dr Rajendra Pachauri, the jet-setting, troll-impersonating railway engineer who runs the IPCC and wants to stop ice being served with water in restaurants. This is why those of us who oppose his SCHEME TO CARBON-TAX THE GLOBAL ECONOMY BACK TO THE DARK AGES must do everything in our power to bring the scandal to a wider audience. One way to do this is law suits.

At Ian Plimer's lunch talk yesterday, Viscount Monckton talked of at least two in the offing – both by scientists, one British, one Canadian, who intend to pursue the CRU for criminal fraud. Their case, quite simply, is that THE SCIENTISTS IMPLICATED IN CLIMATEGATE HAVE GAINED FUNDING AND CAREER ADVANCEMENT BY TWISTING DATA, HIDING EVIDENCE, AND SHUTTING OUT DISSENTERS BY CORRUPTING THE PEER-REVIEW PROCESS.

Robert Watson, one of the government's chief scientific advisors, has called for all the raw data to be published. Norfolk police are investigating whether computers were hacked. The UN's Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading body for assessing climate change science. The organisation's chairman Dr Rajendra Pachauri told BBC Radio 4's The Report programme the claims were serious and he wants them investigated.

"We will certainly go into the whole lot and then we will take a position on it," he said. "We certainly don't want to brush anything under the carpet. This is a serious issue and we will look into it in detail." Last week, the IPCC defended its procedures in the wake of the row. One of the leaked e-mails suggested CRU head Dr Phil Jones wanted certain papers excluded from the UN's next major assessment of climate science.

Dr Jones, who has stood aside from his job pending the results of an internal review, strenuously denies this was his intention and says other e-mails have been taken out of context. The row broke out two weeks ago when hundreds of messages between scientists at the CRU and their peers around the world were put on the internet along with other documents. Climate "sceptics" have claimed that the e-mails undermine the scientific case for climate change being caused by humanity's greenhouse gas emissions, dubbing the issue "ClimateGate".

RBS reportedly wants to pay a total of £1.5bn in bonuses to investment banking staff, and the board has threatened to quit if the government blocks the move. The Treasury said it would intervene if it was in the interest of taxpayers. Meanwhile, Barclays is planning on increasing the non-variable element of staff pay at Barclays Capital, its investment bank, the BBC's business editor Robert Peston says.

Barclays maintains that by pushing up salaries, it is only doing what G20 governments have asked it to do, by shifting the weight of pay from the variable portion - ie bonuses - to fixed. Lord Myners has estimated that AT LEAST 5,000 BANKERS IN THE UK WILL EARN MORE THAN £1M THIS YEAR. He told the BBC that the median wage in the UK was just over £20,000 a year, and yet some bankers expected as a matter of course to receive bonuses, in addition to their salaries, of millions of pounds.

He also said banks needed to be mindful of the fact that much of the profit they were now making was due to "the benign conditions" created by the government pumping billions of pounds into the economy to stimulate demand. RBS directors say it is their legal duty to act in the interests of shareholders, and that if they do not pay competitive bonuses, top talent will leave the bank. This would have an adverse impact on profitability, and therefore the bank's ability to repay the taxpayer, they argue.

Asked whether the new EU External Action Service, which he has previously described as "the world's biggest diplomatic service", will be complicated by rivalries between the Commission, the Parliament and the member states, Solana replies: "The service will be a new institution situated between the Commission and the Council. IT WILL BE MADE UP OF CIVIL AND MILITARY PERSONNEL." Asked about the priorities of the service, he says it will be interested first and foremost in neighbouring regions, in the Mediterranean, the East and Russia.

However he adds: "IT MUST ALSO HAVE IN MIND GLOBAL ACTION. WE ARE NOT ONLY AN ECONOMIC OR TRADE ORGANISATION. I want, I hope, to put forward a political will to play a role in international affairs."

Asked if there is a growing gap between Europe and America over Afghanistan, Solana says: "I don't think that one can talk of a big gap with the United Sates: there are 30,000 Europeans deployed over there under the NATO umbrella. It is unfair to say that Europe's involvement is too modest."

It is Europe's dirty secret that the list of nuclear-capable countries extends beyond those — Britain and France — who have built their own weapons. NUCLEAR BOMBS ARE STORED ON AIR-FORCE BASES IN ITALY, BELGIUM, GERMANY AND THE NETHERLANDS — AND PLANES FROM EACH OF THOSE COUNTRIES ARE CAPABLE OF DELIVERING THEM. The Federation of American Scientists believes that there are some 200 B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs scattered across these four countries.

Under a NATO agreement struck during the Cold War, THE BOMBS, WHICH ARE TECHNICALLY OWNED BY THE US, CAN BE TRANSFERRED TO THE CONTROL OF A HOST NATION'S AIR FORCE IN TIMES OF CONFLICT. Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dutch, Belgian, Italian and German pilots remain ready to engage in nuclear war.

The US and NATO military leaderships remain protective of the weapons. As recently as December 2008, the Secretary of Defense Task Force on Nuclear Weapons Management, chaired by former US Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, said the weapons were an important guarantee of NATO security and also supported nonproliferation efforts by preventing allied states from developing their own weapons programs. The report concluded that the presence of B61s in Europe "remains an essential political and military link between European and North American members of the alliance."