Today’s column, first, Factchecking P and then this:

Some things Brown must do: he needs to claim the green title from the
other parties. He was bruised by criticism this week when he raised
taxes on flying by just £5 – no deterrent on cheap flights – and petrol
duty only rose by inflation. Since he commissioned the Stern report on
global warming, why has he done so little to implement it?

Let’s see. Brown commissions the Stern Review. The Stern Review advocated Pigouvian taxation, so that we all pay the costs of our actions. Brown then implements the recommendations of the Stern Review by imposing Pigouvian taxation upon flights. At something right around the correct level. What on earth is Polly going on about then? He’s actually done exactly as the report states he should!

Here’s the reason he feels aggrieved: green taxes on driving and flying
make marginal impact – people rebel long before they cut their travel.

Ah, Polly doesn’t actually get the point at all.  Pigouvian taxation is not to stop people doing something, not to price them out of an activity. It is simply to make them pay the full costs of what they do. OK, big surprise there then.

Then we also have this:

Most chancellors sound as if chunks of their speech are penned by
officials, not quite convincing in their grasp of macro or micro
details. But here is the man who studies everything, consuming
documents with the speed of a shredder. Standing at the dispatch box,
the towering superiority of his brain makes intellectual pygmies of his
opponents.

Dear Lord, as the DK pointed out oh so graphically, this really is rather over the top isn’t it? Couldn’t the two of you just get a room or something?