For the Bonfire

Eleven thousand mere experts, or rather less than the number of electors who elevated the Imperial Haystack to wear the dunce's crown of the Recrudescent Imperium, have issued a statement warning once again about the climate emergency. They suggest, heretically enough, that continually flying back and forth on business trips might be a bad idea, and that society might perhaps do better by educating girls to be something other than breeders and home-makers. They also recommend reducing the consumption of meat, which is one of the few areas where Her Majesty's Government may possibly boast of progress; albeit by the rather crude device of reducing the habit of eating generally, and this only among the undeserving classes. Unless radical change takes place, the scientists' statement warns of "untold suffering", a turn of phrase that demonstrates a healthy knowledge of the working priorities of Britain's free and cantankerous press. Fortunately, the rulers of the Recrudescent Imperium have no interest in suffering that doesn't tell on them; otherwise even the word of eleven thousand mere experts might be grounds for a bit of a worry.