In a post last weekend where I was very critical of George Monbiot for suggesting that those on the left should no longer vote tactically to prevent a Conservative government, I prefaced my remarks by saying that his journalism consistently told me more than most others. Some comments poured scorn on that remark. So let me give you an example.
In an earlier article, George Monbiot noted a part of the innocently titled ‘Infrastructure Bill’ currently going through parliament. Section (36, p39) is headed ‘Maximising economic recovery of UK petroleum’. Its principle objective is to do just that. Now it does not take a climate scientist to realise that trying to restrict our use of fossil fuels to avoid climate change requires leaving quite a lot of them in the ground. So this bill suggests that whatever the UK government says about climate change, the UK contribution in terms of limiting extraction of oil will be exactly zero. It is so important that we extract every last economical drop that we need legislation to guarantee it! I wonder who ‘we’ is in this case?
Over a year ago I wrote a post entitled “Will the UK Conservatives become like the Republican Party?” It included this paragraph.
I would argue that attitudes to climate change represent an acid test of whether ideology has overtaken evidence in parties of the right. The UK in particular appears to be at a critical point in this respect. While the official Conservative line recognises the importance of trying to deal with man-made climate change, a significant proportion of Conservative MPs are now promoting climate change denial. Deniers are given wide coverage (and often support) in the largely right wing UK press, and perhaps as a result the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, has been quite antagonistic towards ‘green’ policies.
With this legislation that line has clearly been crossed.
The Conservatives know that in the UK a great many people regard the US Republican Party as slightly mad. So they will never come out and say they intend to do nothing about climate change. In fact they will say exactly the opposite. But legislation speaks louder than words. It has been apparent for some time that George Osborne has no time for any of this green nonsense. Now it is official, in legislation going through parliament.
We therefore need to ask in what other ways will the Conservatives follow the Republicans. The Republican congress has already mapped out its strategy for unwinding many of the controls on Wall Street implemented after the financial crisis. If the Conservatives win in 2015, given who provides [1] a large amount of their funding, do we really think the same thing will not happen here? Not all at once, but quietly by slipping in the odd bit of legislation here and there. In a similar manner to including a commitment to extract all the UK’s oil in an infrastructure bill.
[1] From this link note the summer party guest list at £1000 a ticket, and who is number 4 in the list. Now you know who 'we' is when it comes to this part of the UK infrastructure bill.
Artikel keren lainnya:
Belum ada tanggapan untuk "The Conservatives follow the Republicans on climate change"
Posting Komentar