Careful What You Brief For

However terroristic it may be to warn of the climate crisis by inconveniencing motorists or gluing oneself to a building, it appears that following the example of the martyred Bobby Sands is now an acceptable form of protest. After a mere thirty-seven days of hunger strike by a campaigner outside Parliament, members of the House of Expenses Claimants have condescended to be briefed by the Government's chief scientific adviser. Those who remain sceptical of politicians' appetite for staking their careers on mere facts may see an encouraging precedent in the National Johnson, who was a climate denier as long as it profited him but then listened to that same scientific adviser and, like Saul of Tarsus stoning Ananias and Cephas, underwent a Damascene conversion to the merits of fracking, North Sea oil, and sustainable uranium.