Of climate change planning and experts

Two letters senttotday to The Guardian and Times newspapers respectively: I was fascinated to read your revelations of the accusations from the former Conservative energy minister, Claire O’Neill - who was also hitherto appointed to head the Cop26 Climate Change Conference being hosted next year by the UK – that Boris Johnson’s team had expressed a “ ‘cavalier attitude’ to hosting the climate summit taking the view ‘they could wing it with a few press releases.’” (No 10 accused of 'cavalier attitude' to UK's climate summit duties,” The Guardian on line 1 December; https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/01/no-10-accused-of-cavalier-attitude-to-uks-climate-summit-duties) A few days earlier, the current energy minister, Nadhim Zahawi, was moved to become a joint minister at the Department of Health and Social Care, to oversee the essential roll out of the imminent vaccination strategy. ( Ministerial Appointment: Prime Minister's Office,28 November 2020; https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ministerial-appointment-28-november-2020) While Zahawi nominally remains also in the business and energy department (BEIS), no doubt his priorities wil be the vaccination distribution across the nation.. So how does that leave the preparation for COP26, when the host country in the year leading up to this milestone international conference has no energy minister? Astonishing! >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Michael Gove, minister for the Cabinet Office, has two primary current responsibilities: One, to oversee the process of Brexit to the finishing line. He once famously opined that the public had "had enough of experts" challenging critics of the economic logic of Brexit, during the pre- referendum debate in early June 2016 (https://www.ft.com/content/3be49734-29cb-11e6-83e4-abc22d5d108c); and two, to convince the general public of the Government's confidence in vaccine experts in trying to persuade the maximum number of people to take the vaccination against Covid19. Which Gove should the public believe?