I gave a presentation on climate change to the Ponteland chapter of the University of the Third Age (U3A) yesterday. A very interesting and interested audience of more than 100 active older people. It was probably the only audience with whom you can’t try and be provocative by suggesting they would struggle with voluntary simplicity – they can remember wartime rationing.

It was also the first time I trialled my half-baked, half pinched “pyschology of climate change” model with a live audience. This attempts to explain the different mindsets of the deep green (George Monbiot) and climate sceptic (Nigel Lawson) sides of the argument and why they both think the Government is mad. It stood up to explanation, so I’m going to keep it!