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When someone says, as someone will, “we need a national strategy” for this or that, take note, not of those ringing last two words, but of the first three. For it is there that you will find most of the meaning in this vapid and inescapable phrase.

“We need” is the classic formulation by which the speaker seeks to pre-empt all debate. Had he merely said “I would like” it would have no more weight than do most such statements. But to say “we need” something — well, who can argue with that?

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It’s that word “a,” though — “a” national strategy — that’s the clincher. You’d think, given the emergency described in the previous paragraph, the speaker would have one in mind. “First do x, then do y.” But no, his thinking has not progressed to that extent. All he wants — sorry, all we need — is “a” national strategy. Doesn’t matter what it is, apparently, so long as it’s a strategy, and it’s national.

Which takes us to the annual conference of the Council of the Federation, otherwise known as the premiers, and their perennial struggle to come up with “a national energy strategy.” In fairness, the need for such a strategy would seem more than usually mysterious.