Miriam Cates: Boris Johnson is very clever and very wrong

Miriam Cates: Boris Johnson is very clever and very wrong

As a classicist Boris Johnson must be familiar with the fall of the Roman Empire, which was brought about in part by collapsing fertility rates. Yet he fails to recognise a parallel impending catastrophe of our own times. In fact, Johnson says that falling populations are a “blessing” and a “ray of hope”, because of the “crippling burden” human beings place on nature. But are people not part of the natural world?