Greta thunberg

Greta Thunberg’s yacht, the Malizia II, has delivered her to the UN climate conference in New York – two weeks after she first set sail from Europe. The transatlantic trip was a masterstroke in PR, with every major media outlet broadcasting updates on the journey and detailing the hardships Thunberg has endured – no toilet, no shower and sea sickness. The accusations of hypocrisy have also rolled in thick and fast, criticising everything from the plastic water bottles used by the crew, to the long-haul flights taken by the sailors responsible for returning the yacht to Europe. Thunberg has discovered the perils of pursuing such an ideologically pure cause: if you preach

Last Tuesday evening, I tweeted the following: It was, fairly obviously, a joke. But the fallout was extraordinary.  The gag split people politically. Many of those on the right thought the idea hilarious and a good way to scrutinise an activist who MPs were busy fawning over; my critics on the left suggested I should leave Greta alone because of her age. Both sides then proceeded to fight interminably in my mentions for a week. Twitter could barely cope and — to use its argot — I muted the thread and deleted the app before it destroyed my phone.  Some of those who attacked me then set about reporting me

In popular mythology Greta Thunberg is a one-girl revolution who has inspired millions of young people into action by being able to see what adults refuse to see. But her promotion as global statesman is really a well-crafted piece of PR. Those on the Left who seek to use climate alarmism to further their war on global capitalism know full well that the likes of Robin Boardman-Pattison – the Bristol University graduate with a private education and fondness for foreign holidays, who stormed out of the Sky News studio when Adam Boulton accused him of being middle class – is a liability to their cause. But allow Thunberg to speak