After ‘Trolley’s’ woeful performance at the equally abysmal COP26, we might be justified in lamenting the failure of our Government to set the shining example to the nation that their position demands.

I beg to differ. Were they a shining beacon of excellence, we might mark them out as being more hypocritical than they are.

In truth, we’ve got the Government, indeed the politics, that our wider society deserves. We are increasingly re-drawing the lines for standards and nodding through new low water-marks of poor as ‘acceptable’ and even ‘good’.

We can rail against bent Tories for their lucrative second jobs – or as they are known to the rest of us, ‘first jobs’ – but the rest of the Westminster gang spend most of their time moaning on Twitter and reporting adverse feedback to the police. Perhaps they should take a wee moment to consider why people are angry? The Opposition is not opposing.

Social media abuse may be harsh and unpleasant, but at least it reflects that some folk just haven’t thrown in the towel. If a few empty, 160-character barbs are truly perturbing, the wet-blanket perpetual police witness Labour cabal ought to thank their lucky stars that the wider public has sought refuge in apathy.

COVID, or rather our reaction to it, has opened up a seemingly endless opportunity for the nation to throw down its red pen in the face of ‘inevitability’ and just give up. In a wider context – particularly in relation to services – everything seems to be drifting aimlessly.

The COP26 business wasn’t farcical in the slightest. It was the logical and predictable expression of how society currently is.

A load of people responsible for leading, who haven’t done so, got together to express how the situation of their making was becoming ever-more precarious and that it needed to be sorted, which it won’t.

Head headcase Greta – whose scriptwriters might be bang-on about the threat of global warming – did get her soundbites on this a little narrow, though. COP26 never copped out. Its ‘co-pout’ played its part to perfection by complementing all that went before and all that continues to unfold.