What the future needs and what the future will get are two different things. I'm quite sure that 50 years from now our grandchildren will be cursing us.

However, as I've observed too often, politicians as a class are invariably educated in non-scientific disciplines such as law, literature and history. All of which create a mindset that looks to learning the lessons of the past for dealing with the present. The scientist's and technologist's ability to look forward to the future and extrapolate from the present is  beyond them.

So at a time when we need a break with the tried and tested, we are saddled with a global decision class incapable of such a leap.

Even worse: As people who cherish political dispute, there is a distrust of scientific truth; for them everything is up for grabs in a he-said, she-said debate where the more skilled orator wins, even if they have the flimsier argument. Scientists are at a disadvantage in this arena, they are used to winning a debate with superior facts. Yet now they seek to  operate in an environment where truth and lie are merely two sides of the same debased coinage.

It's no suprise that entrenched interests which only view the next quarterly balance sheet will win hands down every time.

We're fucked basically.

keep to the Fen Causeway