Weren’t global issues supposed to be Gordon Brown’s speciality? With Bono, Bob
Geldof and Bill Gates as his new best mates, he came to the aid of Africa’s
poor a few years ago. In return he received the ultimate luvvie accolade:
Richard Curtis, of Four Weddings and a Funeral fame, wrote a BBC television
docu-drama that contrasted the caring Scotsman’s role in cutting Third World
debt with a greasy Tony Blair’s desire to snatch the credit.
In his last months as chancellor Brown was practically working on the basis
that if it wasn’t a threat to the world then it wasn’t a job worth doing -
unless it was getting rid of his old friend Tony. Didn’t Gordon also
commission Sir Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist at the World Bank,
to produce a 700-page report that said it made for good business as well as
good science to get on with tackling climate change here and now?
Yes, but Brown’s conversion to environmentalism was belated and partial. As a
Treasury stalwart he is suspicious of the huge sums involved in getting us
off our carbon kick. As a real Labour man, something in his bones tells him
that green issues concern only the pampered, sauvignon-sipping classes of
the south. Now, as if to rebuke his lack of faith, comes another annoying
Blair reincarnation. TB is to lead a new international team to secure a
global deal on climate change that will bring laggards like China and the
United States on board the green band-waggon. This announcement followed
within two days of a budget widely greeted as a “green” flop. So as Blair
struts the international stage, Brown gets the dirty job of battling
protesters who object to new airports and smelly coal-fired power stations.
Still, our prime minister can look forward this week to the visit of President
Nicolas Sarkozy of France and his unblushing bride, the glamorous Carla
Bruni. Or can he? Almost the sole subject of conversation is likely to be
That Man again. Monsieur Le Président Bling-Bling wants to make Blair the
president of Europe. And, with Easter beckoning, the Blessed Tony will again
be in the news when he starts work on inter-faith dialogue.
I owe Matthew Parris thanks for this item of useful doggerel, composed by an
anonymous cabinet minister:
At Downing Street upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t Blair
He wasn’t Blair again today
Oh how I wish he’d go away.
Poor Mr Brown likes to talk the talk on green issues at foreign powwows but
has seldom walked the walk back home. Climate action tomorrow is easy to
promise. It’s far harder to make those legendary “tough choices” today when
they hit British voters’ pockets.
As a consequence of dithering, our energy policy is also in a mess. The latest
National Audit Office report suggests that new Labour has done nothing to
curb CO2 emmissions in the past 10 years. Britain ranks second from bottom
of west European countries for supplying renewable energy.
When last summer’s floods (unlinked to climate change) almost swamped
electricity substations there was a danger of black-outs across parts of the
country. You don’t need to be a paid-up green to worry that we are
increasingly vulnerable to Russian and Middle Eastern despots for our oil
and gas.
Much of Blair’s domestic agenda was either dictated or vetoed by his
chancellor, so the failure to secure our energy supplies does not entirely
rest with TB. “The UK would lead the international response to tackle
climate change,” promised Chancellor Brown when the Stern report was
published two years ago. Now he is ensconced at No 10, environmental policy
owes more to St Augustine than Sir Nicholas - he wants the Lord to save him
from global warming - but not yet.
Under Blair the energy and environment cabinet committee was chaired by the
prime minister. But Prime Minister Brown has other priorities. Last week,
what was publicised in advance as “the greenest budget in history” turned
out to be as unexciting as the rest of Alistair Darling’s first outing with
Gladstone’s battered briefcase. “Pathetic”, sneered a green Tory. “Mere lip
service”, said a Liberal Democrat frontbencher. Ecologists were predictably
livid.
Towards the end of his budget speech Darling at last switched from his mantra
of “stability” to impassioned words about climate change although, perhaps
to preserve energy, he scarcely turned up his volume in the chamber. He
described tackling global warming as “our greatest obligation to future
generations”, adding: “We need to do more and we need to do it now. There
will be catastrophic economic and social consequences if we fail to act.”
Then he failed to act.
Darling did announce targets to make all new nondomestic buildings zero-carbon
. . . by 2019. Householders were offered a paltry £26m package for the green
homes service to help to reduce fuel bills and carbon emissions. That works
out at £1 a home. A Lib Dem expert pronounces: “We still have millions of
households which don’t have the minimal level of loft insulation, which
would pay for itself with energy savings within a year.”
Taxes on family-size cars with big engines will go up . . . but from 2010. And
a 2p rise on fuel duty was postponed until October. Perhaps that was for the
best with petrol prices already hitting £1.06p per litre at the pumps. Brown
remembers vividly that it was a rise in the fuel escalator that produced the
worst moment of new Labour’s first term when the road hauliers blockaded
fuel supplies.
He earned his nickname of McCavity for disappearing from our screens during
that crisis and abandoned all attempts to keep increasing the fuel levy
above the level of inflation. Environmental taxes have actually fallen as a
percentage of tax receipts under Labour. Such is public cynicism, that after
suffering a multitude of sneaky stealth taxes, the public now believes any
green taxes are just an excuse to raise more money.
There will be a price to pay for this caution. Labour is supposed to be the
progressive party. So what can the government offer to progressive voters as
an inducement to vote for it? In the party’s heartlands, green issues may
not loom large. Yet in the marginal southern and metropolitan seats there
are a hell of a lot of muesli-munching, small ‘l’ liberal voters going
spare.
It is no accident that all three main London mayoral candidates, including Ken
Livingstone, the official Labour candidate, oppose the government on
building a third runway at Heathrow. The government’s deathly embrace of BAA
has won it no radical friends.
For the opposition, Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s chief strategist, long ago
converted him to environmental-ism and a large part of the young leader’s
instant new appeal was based upon it. It was suddenly hip to be a green
Tory. Some unconvincing stunts and a flirtation with taxing airline travel
created a backlash, but the polls still identify green issues as a plus for
the Conservatives. Over at the Liberal Democrats, Chris Huhne’s attractive
Scandinavian model of balancing all new green taxes with simultaneous tax
cuts is his party’s strongest suit.
The world is moving on. A new administration in Washington, red or blue, will
be greener. Both Democratic hopefuls are signed up to more radical schemes
than those proposed by the European Union. John McCain, the Republican
candidate, has co-sponsored a bill to limit greenhouse emissions at federal
level.
Today’s 16-point opinion poll lead for the Tories argues for Labour boldness.
Alan Milburn, the former Labour health secretary, emphasises the importance
of green issues in his appeal to Brown to show “the vision thing” (see page
19). Another big beast, Charles Clarke, says Brown’s response to green
issues is “embarrassing”.
The dilemmas and trade-offs of environmental policy are, admittedly, highly
complex. The political pitfalls of changing our tax system are obvious. But
as the man who commissioned the Stern report, Brown gained great credit. By
ducking on delivering, he hands the green card to his enemies.
Gordon may think that saving Labour comes before saving the planet but the two
goals aren’t exclusive.
