Overheard in a cafe: a woman talking in quiet, bleak despair about her husband’s drinking. His Doctor had banned him from the addiction for six months (minimum). Instead of learning from the admonition, he simply saw it as something to count down, and from midnight on the last day he had resumed with glee. Now his stomach was so ravaged that the only way he could carry on was by taking malibu in milk. But it kept him topped up.
Because every addict we’ve ever known is like that. The booze, the fags-they’re not a bolt on, they are what the addict is-culturally, socially, personally. Of course they see every attempt to oppose reason and common and sense as an imposition from them, the others, the grown ups. They learned their addictions when very young. And in the pub, with their mates and booze and fags, is where they’re young again. And somewhere in that group is the worse mate of all. The facilitator. The one who offers another drink with a knowing leer. Or a cigarette with the ancient line “have a fag, Dave-one won’t kill yer mate” (every danger carries half a truth)
And so we come to Rishi Sunak, and his weasel proposals to water down the UK attempt to wean ourselves off our addiction to fossil fuels.[1] Anyone who’s had a habit, or knows someone who has, will recognise what he is doing. He’s that one in the Dog and Duck with the ever ready packet of fags and one more for the road. Only this time it’s not the life of one foolish individual, it’s all of us.
the sub-editors would like to point out that Rishi Sunak is a good boy who neither smokes nor drinks. WE think they’ve missed the point!
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/19/rishi-sunak-planning-drop-net-zero-policies-pre-election-challenge-labour
#addiction #climate change #fossil fuels #net zero
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