Fake Kids

One of the great traditional childhood pastimes is, of course, the systematic persecution of those smaller and weaker than oneself; which no doubt explains why a group of American children aged from nine upwards are bullying a two-year-old by trying to drag him through the courts. The group argue that the US government's attitude to climate change, which has veered between inaction and promotion, deprives them of their constitutional rights and also betrays the public trust - the quaint, old-fashioned doctrine, long abandoned here on the mainland, which specifies that governments have some sort of responsibility for preserving public resources. It remains as yet unclear whether the case will come to trial; but the idea that good Christian folk should concern themselves with the rights of children outside the womb has never carried much weight in the God-botherers' Own Party. Predictably enough, the Trumpster wendy-house has responded with squeals of self-pity on several fronts, most notable of which is perhaps the claim that keeping public-domain information in the public domain constitutes an intolerable burden upon the machinery of government.