Do Brown and Green Mix?

An Eurostar ad on Thursday's pre-budget report brought a chuckle to my face - it's main slogan was 'Gordon Green'. How have I not thought of that before...

The Chancellor's pre-budget report has been disappointing precisely because it has come on the heels of the Stern Review. The Guardian's leader article in today's paper begins aptly, "As words echo, they can start to ring hollow." I think the 'tinkering around the edges' assessment is right - the headline statistics are the increases in fuel tax and flight tax - which would add estimated average costs of 20 pounds a year for motorists and a 7% (5 pound) increase for short-haul flights. On the latter, this stands in stark contrast to surveying which suggests that something more drastic - a 28% tax increase closer to 20 pounds - would have a tangible effect of encouraging four out of ten passengers not to fly. Genuine freedom of choice is an illusion - we choose from the options that are presented to us, and it is the responsibility of government to present options that reflect public interest, rather than a slavish adherence to the principle of the freedom to choose. We have a number of freedoms that we are entitled to - but I really don't think that the freedom to fly is one of them. Where are the signals to encourage proper, environmentally-responsible behaviour?

At the same time, though, I'm mindful that at least the circumstances and the context in which we live mean that climate change remains near the top of the political agenda and something that the mainstream parties cannot ignore. The Tories and the Lib Dems have stolen the environmental spotlight from Labour, and in doing so, cast a bit more light on the Green Party too, which in turn puts a bit more pressure back on Labour. As more people talk about how we respond to climate change, a greater diversity of opinion emerges - I don't and won't agree with all of it, but ifwe're not on the same page, at least we're reading the same book and arguing over it.

I also listened to a podcast of a Tony Benn interview this morning. The thought that has remained in my head through the day - 'All progress comes from underneath,' and so we press on, doing what we believe in, doing the right thing towards a better world that may or may not happen in my lifetime - but everything begins somewhere, and behind the crashing of each wave on the seafront is the motion and the cycles that began hundreds of miles offshore.