Pastoral. It is hard to think of another word that says as much about British culture. Owning, and actually using, a hardback dictionary is an admission of age. According to mine, pastoral has four meanings: relating to cattle or sheep farming (of a creative work) portraying country life relating to the giving of spiritual guidance…

In the news over the weekend was a story about the audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change. It all started apparently with a man named E Bruce Harrison, the “father of environmental PR”, on an autumn day in 1992. A few months earlier, the international community had adopted the United Nations Framework…