Breeding controversy
A Downing Street aide, believed to have been recruited as a result of Dominic Cummings’s advert for ‘weirdos and misfits’, resigned after it was revealed he had spoken favourably of eugenics in the past. Where did eugenics come from?
— The term was coined in 1883 by Francis Galton, a half-cousin of Charles Darwin. As well as studying meteorology and introducing the first weather map to the Times, he proposed experiments to test the heredity of intelligence — including the somewhat unethical proposal of separating twins at birth. The weak, he proposed, should be prohibited from breeding. Galton himself failed to have any effect on the gene pool because, in spite of 43 years of marriage, he never fathered a child.
Right as rain?
Environment Secretary George Eustice said that he was ‘happy’ with how flood defences had operated during Storm Dennis and blamed the flooding of homes in Wales and the West of England this week on climate change.
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