Bush-whacked

If there ever was a daddy's girl, Jenna Bush looks the part. Poor, poor thing. But, I am not here to bushwhack the Great Decider today. Rather, I was going to talk about climate change - a topic very far from daddy Dubya's tin heart. The environment. What Brown referred to in yesterday's pre-budget report as the "greatest challenge that has ever faced humanity"? Now, I don't know about you, but is the green crusade not turning into a march of middle-class miserabilists?

In 200 years, when people have seen the climate change lobby for what it is - alarmists and frustrated politicians seeking publicity through fear - will they not look back on this level of western hysteria and laugh? If you listen to the green lobby rhetoric apparently disease, floods, and famines in the developing world are a direct consequence of 4x4s on British motorwars and the scramble for seats on EasyJet. The climate change lobby has a case for arguing that the earth's temperature will be affected by the activities of its occupants, but why do they insist on demanding that everyone in the UK live in total abstinence, riding on bikes and prohibitively expensive trains, rather than winning the argument a different way?

But, that's enough spit-fire for today. Especially as there is "And While London Burns" to listen to - the awesome, new soundtrack for the era of climate change set amongst the skyscrapers of the most powerful financial district on Earth, London’s Square Mile. An opera for one, it takes the listener, equipped with an mp3 player on a walking audio adventure through the streets and alleyways of our city. The makers describe it as "bathed in fire, flood, love and turmoil" and a "collision of thriller, opera and guided walk". And I have to agree, it's pretty hard-hitting.

Download it for free here.