Prepare to defend our priceless democracy

IN his 1938 work Murphy, Samuel Beckett assured us that “the sun shone, having no alternative, on the nothing new”.

Very little has changed to suggest that Beckett might have to consider new options for the source of our planet’s light and heat.

The sun still rises and shines, it still sets and warms. It is as close to a certainty — apart from death — that we have.