Benny Peiser’s CCNet missive this morning begins with an amusing couplet:
The Foreign Secretary accused the public yesterday of lacking a sense of urgency in the face of the potentially devastating consequences of climate change. David Miliband said that people had grown apathetic about the issue when they needed to be galvanised into action before the Copenhagen climate change summit in December.
–Hannah Devlin, The Times, 23 October 2009
After the uprising of the 17th June/ The Secretary of the Writers Union/ Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee/ Stating that the people/ Had forfeited the confidence of the government/ And could win it back only By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier/ In that case for the government/ To dissolve the people/ And elect another?
– Bertold Brecht, 1953