“Sorry, that’s the way things have to be”

I’ve lost track of the number of people who tell me to read George Monbiot’s books and columns because “he has many of the answers” to climate change, over-consumption, consumer capitalism, and corporate imperialism.

In fact, I’ve actually read a couple of his books, most recently Heat, and dip into his columns for the Guardian from time to time.

I agree that Monbiot does challenge orthodoxies, does put forward some ingenious ideas and does make some good arguments based on solid research, but overall I’m left with the feeling that he’s just another naive middle-class professional playing at “doing good”.

Lost post

I’ve just spent an hour writing a post, only to have it vanish when I clicked the Publish button.

Sigh. That will teach me not to use the web-based WordPress editor.

Normally, I write posts using an off-line editor so I have a copy on my own computer and then backup that copy to CD.

But, as I wasn’t feeling well - I now have a chest infection on top of broken collarbone and the long-running abscess - I decided to laze on the sofa and use the Other Half’s laptop instead of the desktop at the desk upstairs.

The inevitable happened and I lost an hour’s writing.

I might rewrite the post tomorrow. Then again, I may not!