In a February Quadrant essay, the dissenting doctor reacts with disdain at Mrs. Boris Johnson’s pathetic political correctness before taking potshots at environmentalists, little Greta Thunberg, 19th-century German romantic art, and illogical British energy policies.

The almost pagan attachment to the propitiation of the biosphere has led to a situation in which a country which cannot guarantee that its lights will remain on next winter will electrify tens of millions of vehicles—at great cost, as usual, to the poorer half of the population. This is either stupid sentimentality or corruption, the capture of the political class by certain lobbying visionaries. I hope that the explanation is corruption, for there is no cure for stupidity.