"Crazy economics". That is how John Redwood thinks about splitting the good bits of state-owned banks off for sale and leave the bad bits for taxpayers to pay all the losses. This comes as The Sunday Telegraph splashes on banking divisions.

"I guess this shortest of term Governments wants to be able to present an imminent "success" in the form of the possible sale of the good bits of Northern Rock 'at a profit'.

"Any fool could sell parts of any of the nationalised banks for more than taxpayers paid for the whole, because the toxic estates will be so expensive to maintain and sort out," said Mr Redwood, a former chief policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher, in a blog posting.

Dear Anna,
Please can you suggest how I could make Halloween Night environmentally friendly?
Yours
Beth Symon, Jesmond

Hi Beth,
I sure can. Turn off the lights, go to bed early and pretend you're out.
Happy Halloween
Anna

Will Foreign Secretary David Miliband heading for Brussels? He insists he is not a candidate to become Foreign Secretary of Europe, but does not rule out him categorically.

The job will be created under the controversial Lisbon Treaty, which could be ratified within weeks.

And his name is on a shortlist compiled by the Party of European Socialists seen by The Times. Now top Labour MEP Stephen Hughes has told me he would put money on it after recent lobbying of Mr Miliband.

I have been to a few public lectures at Newcastle University but never have I seen the Hall so packed.
All were there to listen to the infamous environmentalist Jonathon Porritt, who amongst other things has been called weird, wacky and even evil due to his views on population growth.

It's a vital feature of the region's economy, but what should it be called next? Yes, the question everyone wants answered; what should we call One North East when it ceases to be One North East?

Getting ready to go out eco-style doesn't have to mean boring.

My adult social life tends to be restricted these days, to getting drunk with other Mums at the back of some community centre, whilst Coco the Clown entertains the kids at a birthday party.

However on Tuesday night I had the chance to do something altogether more sophisticated, more intelligent, more grown -up.

This is possibly the most significant question facing this country. 2020 is a medium term date with some particular targets. First a related digression:

After my first blog I received the following email: 'You say the UK is currently in Europe only ahead of Malta and Luxembourg in adopting renewable energy. That's a very useful statistic. Do you have a reference for it please?'

Well, this perfectly illustrated the point I made at the end of my second blog. We have the power, in a way that has never before been available, of accessing all sorts of key resources, including scientific and government reports, and using it. In a search through my paper files I couldn't put my hands on the source, so I opened Google and typed in - 'renewable energy targets 2020'. I took one of the first choices 'The EU's target for Renewable Energy 20% by 2020'. This turned out to be the report of the House of Lords EU committee 2007-2008. There on pages 15 and 16, Table 1, were the full embarrassing facts - 3 columns: the countries, their percentages of renewable energy in 2005, and their agreed targets for 2020. I had not seen the full stark table before. These are the figures at the bottom of the scale for 2005: Malta 0%, Luxembourg 0.9%, UK 1.3%... and at the top: Sweden 39.8%, Latvia 34.9%, Finland 28.5%. Look at the table yourself. In the light of all the claims made by Tony Blair that we are world leaders in tackling climate change, and the way most people in Britain and even outside Britain believed him, these figures are mind bogglingly horrific.

Frank Cook, MP for Stockton North, is no fan of T Blair. He thinks he is wholly unsuitable to be El Presidente of Europe. A bit different from Gordon Brown and David Miliband. Click here to read the motion.

Extraordinary. The MPs expenses crisis takes a fresh twist. Backbenchers are furious about plans to ban relatives working for them and claiming mortgage interest for second homes.

One MP has compared to it as something akin to racism, saying: "It is really on the lines that you are black - you cannot do the job."

On top of that, he reckons a fresh wave of MPs will jump ship - wondering what the point of the whole thing is.

A key issue that could push them over the edge is "golden goodbyes" worth around £60,000 for outgoing MPs being slashed to £10,000,

Dear European Commission.
Yeah, thanks for the money and all that. We're grateful.
Just a little point on the names issue.

Maybe it's something that got lost in translation, but did no one tell you we might have wanted to avoid setting up a new business called "the bad bank"?

Still, thanks anyway,

Gary Hoffman,
Northern Rock chief executive