You may recall the syndrome of the manse, our loathed and despised Prime Minister Gordon Brown, informing us back in October that we had only fifty days to ‘save the planet from catastrophe’.  Writing in the Independent (that popular and well-respected newspaper about to go out of circulation), old elastic jaws more or less put the Copenhagen Summit (7 – 18 December) on the same level as the crucifixion as one of the determining factors that would salvage the fortunes of mankind.

Effectively then we’re all doomed.  For India has already rejected proposals by the Danes to limit the carbon output of developing nations by 2025.  And why shouldn’t they have told the Danish government to go and take a running jump?  Indians want the same as the Danes, and the Brits, and the Yanks, and the Krauts, a little bit of prosperity.  Over the past 25 years the Indian middle classes (still a hell of a long way from our comprehension of this sociological label) have grown from 90 million to 300 million people.  That still leaves over 800 million in abject poverty.  So put any notion of carbon reduction by either India or China in your pipe and smoke it, Mr Rasmussen.  As for what will emerge from Copenhagen: Platitudes?  Yes.  India and China abandoning the drive for economic growth courtesy of the carbon economy to suit the environmental hysterics in the West?  No damn way!!

Of course, Gordon was lying.  We haven’t fifty days to save the planet.  Because, notwithstanding determined efforts by the political Left to get us to fundamentally alter the way we live our lives in the name of a phenomenon which is far from comprehensively proven, people will go on travelling, using electronic devices, driving cars and living according to the means afforded to them by their income.  It’s called human development, Mr Brown.  We have it, the likes of India and China want it, and they ain’t gonna stop till they get it. 

So enjoy your final jaw-jaw before you are, please the Lord, kicked out of power next spring.  I should imaging the hot air coming out of Denmark next week will contain more CO2 emissions than the giant oil refinery I passed en route from Delhi to Agra two weeks ago.