In a galaxy far, far away—or rather, in Whitehall—someone’s taken leave of their senses again. In the latest episode of out of this world government spending, £200,000 of taxpayer money is being used to fund research that aims to tackle climate change…through Star Wars. This is not a Sith trick…
UK Innovation and Research, a state-funded body, has handed over the money to Open University for a project titled “Using Star Wars to Improve Sector Sustainability Practices.” The study aims to draw parallels between environmental challenges in the Star Wars universe—such as the destruction of Alderaan—and real-world climate issues. Apparently, we’re supposed to learn something about tackling global warming by reflecting on a fictional planet blown to bits by the Death Star…
Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance said:
“Taxpayers will think that likening the Death Star to global warming is totally absurd. Funded research should focus on actual science, not sci-fi fantasies.”
The study will also helpfully dive into the “ecological impact of making props for the Star Wars films.” The force is clearly not strong with whoever thought this was a good use of public money…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”