This would have been a major story five years ago

Published: January 11, 2016 at 3:26pm

The country’s leading environment and heritage organisations have gone to war with the Environment Minister, because “he has done far too little to ward off the worst excesses afflicting the environment”.

Five years ago, that would have been a major story, with headlines across all the newspapers and the Labour Party’s television and radio stations going on about it relentlessly until people finally got the message that Some Really Bad Things Are Going On.

Now, it’s barely mentioned in passing. Another day, another shocker. Oh well, as long as the usual suspects are happy.

environment