It put a spring in my step to see at least one person in the Valley had read what I wrote and it was exciting he thought it was worth answering. I am grateful, Chris, and you can have the satisfaction of knowing you made an old man happy.

Unfortunately, Chris rather missed the point. Just to be clear, I did not suggest global warming is not happening. For all I know, it is rampant and the world is warming up even faster than scientists think. On that question, I have never expressed any opinion.

My point was that the world has always been getting warmer and cooler, without the slightest intervention from mankind, and it is really rather pretentious to imagine we are the cause of the current phase.

Almost 2,000 years ago this country received a visit from quite a large bunch of Romans. Some of them stopped at Ribchester, but others were adventurous enough to go north as far as Northumberland. When they arrived, they did what still comes naturally to Romans and planted grapes. They did it because they enjoyed drinking wine and, for as long as they stayed here, Northumbrian wine was their daily tipple.

Northumberland had not become warm enough for viticulture because the Picts and Scots were leaving their computers on standby or driving to airports in 4x4s and it did not cool down because of human intervention either. I am sure Chris will agree with me that both the warming and the cooling happened because of some law of physics which we poor humans do not yet quite understand.

Today the world is warming up again. It is not yet warm enough to allow us to grow grapes in Northumberland or even Ribchester, but we are able to make quite good wines in Sussex and I rather hope my grandchildren will be able to drink Northumbrian wine, as the Romans did. Sadly, I do not think I can hasten that day by driving a bigger car but neither do I think I can put it off by driving a smaller one.

Chris thinks he can, but the only reason he gives is that "the scientists say so". In that respect, he is like the old-fashioned Roman Catholic who used to think he could justify things simply by saying "the Pope says so". Perhaps, in next week's Clitheroe Advertiser and Times, he could tell us how Nothumberland got warm enough to make wine last time around and why he thinks history is not simply repeating itself.

And perhaps he might also tell us why he prefers English weather to be worse for us than it was for our forebears.