The news that DECC minister Amber Rudd is to meet with Nigel Lawson in the near future is intriguing. After years of DECC bigwigs refusing to meet anyone who wasn't an environmentalist or attached firmly to the taxpayer's teat (or preferably both), one can only wonder what civil servants are making of it all. You can almost picture the horror on the faces of the Whitehall greens.
Rare though it may be, one should not expect too much from such an occasion. Ms Rudd seems quite clear that she is seeking to persuade Lawson of her views rather than trying to learn anything. And as we know from the Slingo correspondence from 2010, the climate bureaucracy sees its role as rebutting anything Lawson says. One therefore assumes that Ms Rudd's staff will be particularly attentive in the hours and days after Lawson leaves the premises.
We can only wonder what the government seeks to gain from this meeting. Perhaps Mr Cameron sees it as a sop to the Tory right, many of whom are taking up arms after the government started to set out its stall on the EU referendum (although there are signs of a rapid retreat taking place). Then again, perhaps Ms Rudd is, underneath it all, just interested to learn. We will have to wait and see.
In the meantime, let's enjoy the wails of the greens.