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The focus of British interest in proceedings at the United Nations has naturally been to do with whether or not the US President, Barack Obama, has snubbed Gordon Brown and whether their 15-minute chat in a UN kitchen compensates for the president's reluctance to engage in bilateral talks.
But there are more significant developments ahead of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. Russia's willingness to engage with the US on the problem of Iraq's nuclear intentions is pre-eminent among them.
When President Obama unilaterally abandoned plans for an anti-missile programme in Poland and the Czech Republic, his initiative went down badly among US conservatives, who criticised any concession to Russia that was not matched by Moscow. It would seem, however, that the Russians are willing to reciprocate his gesture.
President Medvedev has declared that he is willing to entertain the idea of sanctions against Iran if that country turns out to be engaged in developing nuclear weapons. “Sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases sanctions are inevitable,” he said. This is a significant concession, given the closeness of the ties between Russia and Iran. Normally, talk of sanctions at the UN Security Council are stymied by Russia or China.
The concession is legitimately limited in that Russia insists that any sanctions would have to be squarely based on recommendations from the International Atomic Energy Agency. It does, however, mean that when Iran holds talks with six international powers next week on the subject of its nuclear development plans, the atmosphere will be significantly different than if it considered that sanctions would not be a realistic option.
For his part, the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has shown his own emollient side by saying he would shake all hands that “are honestly extended to us”. That, too, seems to echo President Obama's earlier wish to engage constructively with Iran.
The problem of nuclear proliferation is far larger than Iran, of course, and there are real dangers stemming from the possession of nuclear warheads by Israel and Pakistan, who have not signed up to the non-proliferation pact (indeed Israel has never acknowledged its nuclear weapons), as well as the big arsenals of the US and Russia. But undeniably the world would be a rather safer place if neither Iran nor North Korea were to have those weapons.
The larger moral of this development is that President Obama's more conciliatory approach to international relations is visibly yielding results. That benefits all of us.
Safe in taxis
This paper was the first to reveal that a man who was convicted of strangling his wife had become a licensed mini-cab driver who was taking “the knowledge” to enable him to qualify as a black cab driver.
As a result of the revelation and the controversy among other drivers about the original decision of the Public Carriage Office to allow a paranoid schizophrenic to be accepted as a potential black cab driver, he will not be allowed to keep his minicab licence nor drive a black taxi.
This is important. Plainly, it is desirable that people with spent criminal convictions and indeed mental illness should be rehabilitated into society. But a cab driver is in a particular relationship of trust with the public; women need to be confident that they can feel safe in taxis.
A black cab is not just synonymous with the driver's expert knowledge of London but also with a sense of security for any passenger. Allowing a convicted killer to become a cab driver would have undermined all that. It is right to ban him.
Pretty please, police
Complaints about the police have soared and most are to do with delays and impoliteness. Plainly it is as important for the police to be courteous as to be effective.
But the police might also point out that the public, too, should say please and thank you. Politeness cuts both ways.
