Reflections 31st October

On my mind this week.

As leaves begin to change colour and fall in earnest, signalling our entry into Winter and the work needed to prepare for Spring, I've found myself thinking about rollercoasters.

There have been a lot of ups and downs for me this week. For a lot of the time, the downs were winning. In the week leading up to COP26, I listened with disbelief to a budget that halved air passenger duty for the vast majority of flights and wondered just how much lobbying and turning of environmental blind eyes went into that. Then there was the absence of those going to the conference who could make other than a rhetorical difference, from China, Russia and a fiscally neutered USA to faith leaders such as the Pope. It's hard to believe that COP26 will be anything other than a cabaret of the confused playing to a sceptical, if not downright cynical, audience. Add to that the spectacle of populist leaders on either side of the channel smacking each other with wet fish, and it is not diffi…