Joanna Lumley and me

+I’ve come to the conclusion that the cosy division of historical periods taught in my secondary school years is, not to put too fine a point on it, all bollocks. The trouble is that what one learns in early youth can linger for a long time. So talk of the ‘Dark Age’ and ‘Middle Age,’ ‘Enlightenment’ etc. can be safely put to one side. There is no such easy differentiation between one century and another which tells us that this or that time was more endowed with civilised properties than any other. I wonder what people (should there be any) in 3,000 CE will call our period? I think ‘post-Roman’ could stand the test of time. It is still in living memory after all that we were slaughtering each other with great abandon for ideals such as racial superiority and territorial gain. If any noun is absolutely necessary I would say we are still in a medieval period, with imperialism thrown in. But being post-modernist, ours is a society where we can imagine a better civilisation but have not yet achieved the means of attaining it.
 
+Back in 2004 I proposed a bill to introduce tradable energy quotas, or Domestic Tradable Quotas as they were then known, to limit our emissions of carbon dioxide. The idea didn’t catch on. Too difficult. Voters wouldn’t like it. The Daily Mail would go apeshit. Could this all be about to change? Apprentice National Treasure, Joanna Lumley, in this morning’s Guardian, is reported saying “That was how the war was: stuff was rationed and at some stage I think we might have to go back to some kind of system of rationing, where you’re given a certain number of points and it’s up to you how to spend them, whether it’s buying a bottle of whiskey or flying in an aeroplane.” Coupled with fully accredited National Treasure Sir David Attenborough’s telling Today listeners this morning that if COP26 fails then ’it’s too late’ I wonder if we’re on to something?