I was reminded, after writing yesterday's post, of a remark made some years ago by David Aaronovitch in The Independent, from his extraordinary review of George Monbiot's Captive State. Aaronovitch was his usual reassuring self, utterly dismissive of the idea that big business wield too much influence on the British government. "The relationship between business and government," as he put it, "is neither a new phenomenon, nor - by itself - a hugely damaging one" (Independent, September 28, 2000).
Well, yet again Aaronovitch has proved to be utterly vindicated in all his pronouncements. Granted the government may have consciously and deliberately emasculated its target for emissions reductions, for fear of losing the support of the Confederation of British Industry - but it's not as if that qualifies as "hugely damaging". Hard to imagine anything more trifling, in fact.
