Of course, both capitalism and socialism are based on the ludicrous and deadly assumptions that the Earth's resources are purely for human consumption, are infinite in extent and can be consumed forever at ever- accelerating rates. All of the major political parties in the UK (and elsewhere) appear to share these assumptions and, hence, in the opening years of the 21st century, have no credibility whatsoever! Notice how even Jeremy Corbyn puts the now obligatory 'tick' in the 'environment box' but it's at the bottom of his list of priorities and is probably just vaguely aspirational ("under ideal economic conditions we might start to think about the state of the environment ... possibly ...").

But it may already be too late. I strongly suspect that anthropogenic climate change is already much more advanced than we are being told by the media. We're also in the midst of a mass extinction event which I can see happening, with my own eyes, in my own patch. Even if it were remotely possible, do our politicians even have time to ditch their 19th century ideologies? I suspect not. The struggles between Left and Right will soon be consigned to the history books - but there will be no-one around to read (or, indeed, write) the history books!