Soldiers of Fortune

Fretting about climate change is all very well for the inhabitants of ideological ivory towers, but in the real world one must adapt to the tough decisions of governments and their owners. In accordance with such hard-headed practicality, a new broom at Lloyd's of London has decreed that insurers will no longer be discouraged from underwriting fossil fuel projects, on the grounds that apolitical neutrality is what makes Lloyd's a safe harbour; much as it once made the Wehrmacht so valuable to certain moderate and sensible opponents of left-wing extremism. While there is undoubtedly room for legitimate debate as to whether the planet should be allowed to remain habitable, it is hardly the business of Lloyd's to come down on one side or the other.