I have been prompted to write this serious column today because, out of the blue sky, the sun got its hat on, hip, hip, hip hooray...for a day. I hope that wasn't summer just past.

Global warming? Don't make me laugh. Sixty years ago on Stevenston shore it was much hotter than this. And we were frying eggs on the pavement. I can't remember whether we ate them.

There is climate change. Always has been. It's called spring, summer, autumn and winter and, let's be honest, there's not much difference between the seasons in damp, grey Scotland.

I blame the weathermen...and women. They can't get their act together. The jolly wee weather chap on BBC Scotland has just announced that "we're in a rut".  Oh, look, there's more rain, wind and cold temperatures coming our way.

No wonder millions of us fly off to sun-kissed foreign parts. That's why the Green Party will never catch on because, if the Save The Planet mob had their way, we would be forbidden from using aeroplanes.

I am one of the heretics. I don't buy into the religion of man-made climate change. You don't have to be a spiritualist to know that human beings cannot change the power of nature and the universe. We are grains of sand shaped by the relentless, infinite surge of the tides, literally and metaphorically.

Only the most ecological fanatics believe that so-called 'net zero' is possible to achieve. It's a nonsense that they, including almost all politicians and scientists, whose careers and pay days are reliant on promoting man-made climate change, are invested in.

We have actually witnessed a similar dictatorial scenario with Covid. We were herded into locking life down by "the experts" who predicted Doomsday.  They would whip us into submission again if they had the chance on the threat of death and destruction.

In the same week that I was watching Dara O'Brien's TV series on 'The Secrets of The Sun", American climate sceptic Willie Soon pointed out that 'the experts' ignore the crucial role of the Sun in climate change which, of course, has occurred since the beginning of time.

Mr Soon asserts that we are bombarded with what he calls 'cartoon depictions' of climate overwhelming us.

One example that comes to my mind is the anxious BBC environmental correspondent who regularly positions himself in front of the same footage of an iceberg breaking off, as has happened forever.

Every school child should know that the Sun provides the energy and immense solar radiation that drives the climate, and will continue to do so for many millions of years to come, until, one day, in the extremely distant future, it dies.

Our distance from the sun is called the Goldilocks Zone: not too hot and not too cold. Mind you, here in Scotland, we could do with being closer. The more sunlight, the better chance of living a long life where you have 50 more times a chance of contracting heart disease than skin cancer.

Everything today is exaggerated out of proportion, relayed 24/7, so don't believe all this end-of-days apocalypticism (easy for me to say) and eco-authoritarian preaching.

Always look on the bright side. That's what the sun does.

Thought for the Week: Don't regret growing older. It's a privilege denied to many.

There were two big news items on the BBC Scotland website the other day.

One was a claim by one of yon Holyrood committees that the Scottish Government should pump another £30 million a year into the Gaelic associations  to save the language. 

The news report revealed that only 0.1 per cent of Scots use Gaelic as their main language. 0.1 per cent.

It still bemuses me that councils like North Ayrshire spend money on painting their hundreds of vehicles with Gaelic, and our railway stations, police cars etc etc are in Gaelic.

Particularly when one of the other big stories was that councils want the Scottish Government to give them money to settle the unions' demands for higher pay for refuse workers. Would £30 million cover it?

Pushing Gaelic or having your bins emptied? What do you think?