Strange Bedfellows

Despite peacekeeping efforts by the world's biggest polluter and its poodle in Iraq and points east, the world faces "conflict and insecurity" unless it acts now on climate change. Tony says it, so it must be true. Now that Britain no longer holds the presidency of the European Union, the British government believes its successors should do more. There is "a window of only 10-15 years to take the steps we need to avoid crossing catastrophic tipping points". As things catastrophic often will, the catastrophes would have "serious consequences", notably for consumer security, energy supplies and Brown's economic miracle, though not necessarily in that order. Tony and his counterpart, Jan Peter Balkenende of the burqa-bashing, asylum-seeker-failing Dutch government, have signed a joint letter to inform their less far-sighted colleagues that the challenge of climate change "can be seen as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Europe to mobilise the political will and resources to transform and modernise our energy system". Among the means of opportunifying ourselves are "cooperating more with booming economies such as China", where a small, unelected and authoritarian cabal engages in repression and censorship at home while occupying a foreign country against the will of its people.