One of the great political truisms of the modern age is that whenever a Government department, usually with some sort of think-tank in tow, announces that its being allowed to ‘think the unthinkable’ whatever follows that statement is going to be:

a. Deeply unpopular, and

b. So full of buzzwords and jargon as to be largely incomprehesible and therefore an exemplar of policy-makers fundamental inability to think or express themselves clearly.

Such it is with this latest whizzo idea on the environment, personal carbon quotas.

So we get phrases like:

“The plan would see people issued carbon units – each equivalent to 1kg of greenhouse gases – to use when buying products such as flights and petrol.”

And

“Under their plans the total national carbon allowance would be steadily reduced to reach the government target of cutting CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.”

What they actually mean is fuel rationing, but with the added bonus that you can buy and sell your rations in the open market – back in WWII this was called ‘spivving’ – which pretty much sums up this dumb idea from the outset.