I’m in the middle of writing an essay on biofuels and climate change at the moment, so energy supply is an issue that is weighing quite heavily on my mind just now. I sometimes get quite pessimistic about climate change, simply because it is such a difficult problem to communicate, and the solutions that are available are correspondingly difficult to communicate.

Take the interchangeability of the terms ‘climate change’ and ‘global warming’ in common conversation. When such a bond between the two terms exists in people’s minds, how are you to discuss the possibility of localised cooling as a result of climate change? The link between warming and climate change is so strong that any suggestion that some areas may experience different forms of climatic change just leads to accusations of weak science.

Why, oh why, do people like Derek Conway have to be politicians? Most people already seem to hold the opinion that MPs are overpaid and have far too generous allowances, and when prats like this come along, all it serves to do is whip Daily Mail readers and sympathisers into a frenzy of calls for MPs to live ascetic lives with vows of poverty.