This one example highlights our many problems...
By mattblackall on
Fri, 16th May 2008 at 12:57
This happened at the beginning of may, so it has taken me a while to write about it. Just before the local elections, Gordon Brown suffered his biggest Labour revolt- around 30 Labour MP's voted against the government and for the introduction of a feed in tariff. The feed in tariff was designed to give incentives for small businesses such as mills to create their own electricty and sell it back to the national grid. Obviously, this would not had solved all our energy needs, and ultimately at the level proposed would had only prodcued around 5% of the energy we need. However, it is the added implications for this that the Labour Whip encouraged MP's to vote against it. If the government were to start increasing incentives for small businesses, and then maybe households, to start producing their own electricty and selling it back to the grid, then there would be less need for these massive national energy companies (who conintue to make profits year on year despite our energy bill going up) which obviously goes against everything New Labour stands for. Furthermore, this would had been a signifcant step in our battle against Climate Change. As stated, it would not had solved our problems, but at the same time it does help and creates the foundations for this measure to expand so that each house has an incentive and help to produce its own electricty that it could sell back to the grid. But no, the bill was defeated. It was defeated because of 'following the Party line', and Gordon Brown-nosers.
So three issues i see here: 1. We all know, but it reafirms, New Labour is in the pocket of (inter)national companies. 2. New Labour's committment to helping slow down the rate of climate change is defunct. 3. Party lines, and political opportunists are hampering worthwhile (and perhaps radical) political change.
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As for Labour's commitment to fighting climate change, this government has put climate change at the forefront of international politics and there are major projects in the pipeline like the London Array and in Scotland a new offshore wind farm, the world's largest. When I met DEFRA minister Jonathan Shaw he told me that a Severn Barrage is also being considered. Rather than simply overlooking Labour's achievements we need to take into account the Conservative Party's policy on this. In the 18 months before this Jan Tory councils approved only 18% of the applications for wind farms brought before them compared with 64% for Labour controlled councils. It is the hypocrisy of the Conservative position on the environment that needs to be exposed, not just some of the shortcomings of the current administration.  Morys Ireland -
Mon, 19 May 2008
I also have no faith in this present governments environmental policies at the same time they are pushing for a new runway at Heathrow and are planning on widing motorways! I've read that even Sarkozy has rejected airport expansion in France because of the impact on the environment. It appears that instead of dealing with the problem, New Labour are trying to shift the blame and responsibility upon ordinary Britons by telling us we have to reduce our own carbon footprints. Yet at the same time, carbon emissions from government offices has increased by 22% in the last year! (excluding MoD) [see Sustainable Development in Government 2007 report by the Sustainable Development Comission) As for the feed in tariffs, it is a welcome comment that you made about the consultation in the summer, but the defeat of the motion earlier this month has already cemented New Labour's position in my opinion, and this consultation at this present moment in time looks nothing more than a gimmick. Although renewable energy is one of the ways forward, and one which the government should be investing in, the government is still not addressing the other important issues. These include transport and energy efficiency in the homes. We are told to use public transport, but at the same time the prices go up. We are told to change our lightbulbs, so why don't they ban non energy efficient bulbs? We are told to use less energy for heating, but why don't the government pay for every house to be properly insulated? When it comes to it, Brown's government are skipping the important issues. It even questions whether the building of renewables is just an attempt to end our foreign energy dependance or if it is actually to reduce our carbon footprint. Didn't a government document in August 2007 propose that the UK was only going to cut emissions by 9% by 2020 if lucky, which is someway off the Kyoto target of 12.5% by 2012. Matthew Blackall -
Tue, 20 May 2008
So you are right Morys, we do need to expose the Tories environmental hypocrisy, but this hypocrisy should not be to the advantage of another Party thats commitment to dealing with climate change walked out the door when the warmonger Blair left office. Matthew Blackall -
Tue, 20 May 2008
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