If the climate-change debate has accomplished anything, it has proved people never say sorry.
When I was about 12 the families of the people who now wince at every gramme of carbon we burn carried on their cars a yellow sticker reading ‘Nuclear Power — No Thanks’ (on 2CVs the sticker was rumoured to be factory-fitted). More linguistically gifted environmentalists preferred the German version ‘Atomkraft? Nein danke’, hinting at sexy Baader-Meinhof connections, or in my part of the world ‘Ynni Niwclear? Dim diolch’ (Back in the 1970s, I am fairly sure it read ‘Pwr Niwclear’, but modern versions all seem to prefer ‘Ynni’ to ‘Pwr’. Maybe any Welsh-speaking Spectator readers could enlighten us — by sending us a letter that’s mostly written in fluent English but which switches to Welsh whenever any tourists come into the pub.)
Fast forward ten years and this crowd were again doing their bit to boost carbon emissions — this time with badges reading ‘Support the miners’.
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