George W Bush. The very first act of the new US president is to open up the Arctic, one of the world's last great wildernesses, to oil exploration.

The day after he was sworn in, his White House spokesman announced: "Moving quickly on a national energy policy is important. We'll push ahead to develop eight per cent of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.'' That means sacrificing 1.5 million pristine acres that are home to polar bears, musk ox, wolves, huge numbers of migratory birds and herds of Caribou, vital to the American Indians who hunt them.

Though environmental assurances are given, the omens look black. An area of Alaska opened up 20 years ago is now a vast sprawl of oil installations and their shack communities. More visible at night from space than New York, it also generates more air pollution than the US capital Washington. Canada's opposition to the new threat emphasises its seriousness.

In South America, a project named Avanca Brasil - Advance Brasil - foresees development gobbling up around 4.3 million acres of the Amazon Forest each year over the next decade or so. Though Bush can't be held responsible for that, it fits into a pattern of loss that might be expected to persuade world leaders that our planet has now reached the point where its remaining unspoilt wildernesses should be treated as inviolate - protected, if necessary by international agreement, from further major inroads. Bush's short-termism is a million miles from that vision.

Ex-President Clinton. Twice blocking proposals to exploit Alaska, Clinton scores well on the above count. But his departure from office was marred by a grubby and shameful episode.

A year before they were due to quit the White House, Bill and Hillary circulated friends with a wedding-type gift list. Identifying where the items could be bought, it brought them £130,000 of luxury gifts, including three carpets, two sofas, a china cabinet, a $2,000-dollar china dinner service, and two sets of cutlery each worth around $4,000.

Tony Blair. He came north to share the joy at Nissan's decision to build the Micra at Sunderland. Would he have been here to ease the despair if the decision had gone the other way?

Tony gushed to the workforce: "I can tell you for sure there was absolutely no other reason that the plant was successful than the hugely skilled and productive workforce. It was you that did it.''

Like the rest of us, the Nissan employees know the key issue is the pound's relation to the euro. But Tony would have us believe that his Downing Street meeting with Nissan president Carlos Ghosn last summer, followed by months of lobbying, had no bearing on the final outcome.

Peter Mandelson. Declaring his intention to stand again for Hartlepool, the twice-fallen non-angel slips so furtively in and out of the town that few see him, then, while Parliament, his place of work, is still sitting, goes abroad on "holiday". And Mandy has never repaid the £11,000 severance pay he received on resigning as Trade Secretary, even though he returned to the Cabinet ten months later. Now he can collect a further £12,129.

Sir Edward Heath. Like Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Michael Heseltine and the Prince of Wales, he has a part in the Mandelson-Hinduja Brothers affair. As their paid consultant, the ex-Prime Minister twice phoned a US magazine that was to publish an article on the brothers, insisting they were "splendid people''.

And Our Father that begat... 100,000 dead, 200,000 injured, 500,000 homeless. Not the kindest of responses, that India earthquake, to the biggest act of worship of all time (Kumbh Mela) in the same country.

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