We all like to have pets. It is as though we needed them. We don't quite know why. We feed them, provide them with a roof over their  heads. We make sure they’re well cared for in their old age. There are all sorts of pets, and not all pets are cuddly, either. Some of us have most peculiar tastes, which seem to attract us to most, seemingly, unfriendly critters. I’d actually met people who slept with snakes in their beds. Not my cup of tea… Believe me, there are stranger pets than snakes...

Nevertheless, whatever they are, we feed them, we give them a place to stay, we protect them from their natural enemies. If need be we fight for them, all to assure their safety and comfort. And when they no longer amuse us, we continue to look after them, long into their old age.

They don’t do anything much. Mostly, they just lie around.

The other day, our most famous pets, all eight of them, (they call themselves G-8 ministers), promised us to reduce the pollution on Earth by 50% by, you won’t believe it, by 2050. In other words by the time all those pet will be long gone from power, and the majority of them will be dead. Who will be repudiating responsibility for nothing having been done? New pets. Pets we shall elect, feed, house, arrange for fat pensions for their old age, and then listen to their innocuous lies.

But, after all, isn’t that what pets are for?