Climate change is having real and lasting effects on the world around us.

If we ever doubted it, the visit of Environment Secretary David Miliband to our own Wytham Woods should bring it home.

OK, so it was a pretty photo opportunity to bolster the Labour Government's green credentials.

But the fact is, he came to our county to illustrate how global warming is affecting wildlife in the heart of the British countryside, and to launch a significant new report on the problem.

We echo his praise for the research being carried out at the "precious resource" of Wytham.

But we question, along with many others, whether his Government really has the willpower to make the environment a priority that drives its policy.

Everyone, including Tory leader and Witney MP David Cameron, is making a lot of noise about climate change.

But for the most part our politicians are still generating no more than a lot of hot air.