Our North London COP is this Saturday at Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, WC1 between 10am and 5pm

WE are hoping for a good turnout event to our North London COP on Saturday.

There will be interesting and important debates from a fantastic list of speakers and Conway Hall will be full of stands with practical information.

It’s all free and put on for you, the readers, in the interest of widening awareness and furthering debate with some of the top experts on the issue.

A lot of people switch off when climate change comes up in conversation. Many will think it’s not worth worrying about as it does not affect them personally. Some feel excluded from a debate that is often cast as middle-class angst.

Frankly, most people are too busy simply getting through the day to think too much about this big picture stuff.

Others get angry at the protesters blocking traffic on the M25 or hurling tomato soup at treasured paintings. It can all feel a bit over-the-top, overly emotional or gloomy even. And anyway, the week­end is for recuperating isn’t it?

We understand all that. But if that’s how you feel we urge you to come down and find out for yourself. Why not ask a question at one of the panels, or speak to someone in the know. The guests can’t simply be preaching to the converted.

The truth of the matter is that the climate crisis is already affecting everyone. Whether that’s your energy bills or the rising costs in the shops, to extreme weather like the floods or record breaking heat we had earlier this year.

Right now, it’s bearable. But it won’t be the case in the not too distant future. And it’s in all our interests we are, as a community, as best informed as we can be. Nothing has ever changed by sitting at home.

Investigate the hidden billions

THE decision to rename a small roundabout off Hampstead Heath after one of the foremost critics of Vladimir Putin has proved divisive.

It was an interesting move when Camden announced it would become the first place in the UK to name a street after Boris Nemtsov, following the lead of authorities in Washington, Vilnius, Kyiv, Bratislava, Prague and Toronto.

Whether you think it’s right or wrong, that’s up to you to make up your mind.

But what we could all agree on perhaps is that if the council and others really wanted to send a message to Russia, it would be to look more carefully at billions hidden away in the mansions of Hampstead and Highgate.

There may have been a cooling-off of the love affair between oligarch-led super-rich and the property investment market since the invasion of Ukraine in March. But what has actually changed?