Fidel Castro is well known for his lengthy disquisitions.

The former Cuban president famously spoke at the UN in 1960 for four-and-a-half hours, which remains, I think, a record.

And his thoughts, captured over the years in the Reflections of Fidel section of the Cuban Granma newspaper have rarely run short.

So his latest offering is almost stunning in its brevity.

The commentary, headlined “The universe and its expansion”, which appeared before the Higgs Boson revelations, is to the point, and cogent.

Here it is, in full:

I respect all religions, although I do not share them. Human beings seek explanations for their existence, from the most ignorant to the wisest.

Science is constantly seeking to explain the laws which govern the universe. At this very moment, they see it during a period of expansion which began some 13.7 billion years ago.