At last the phoney war is over, the election will be called tomorrow, and now the main parties will have to reveal their true strategies for winning power. Policies will be set in stone, or at least written up in party manifestos and justified or discredited in the face of questions and criticism.
This thread is for discussion of any matters in the forthcoming campaign that specifically apply to ‘climate, the countryside and landscapes’. My feeling at the moment is that the main parties, with the possible exception of the Lib Dems, will avoid the subject of AGW like the plague. In fact it would surprise me if even the Greens make a big issue of it other than to make the preposterous claim that moving to a low carbon economy will be a panacea for the present fiscal meltdown.
I hope that I am wrong about this, as it is high time for this whole subject to be dragged into the open and take its rightful place at the centre of the public debated on who will lead the country into the coming decade. The electorate should have an opportunity to make their feelings known to those who will form the next government, whoever that may be.
So if you spot anything that seems relevant among the torrent of electoral verbiage that is about to descend on us, please put a comment and a link here, not on the NS thread where it will quickly become lost and forgotten. What the politicians – and others who can influence their policies – have to say over the next few weeks is likely to be the best guide we can find to how the recent convulsions in the climate debate are feeding through into changed attitudes to AGW among policy-makers.
If major controversies, or apparent changes in political thinking that are relevant to the subjects that Harmless Sky covers emerge during the campaign, then I will open other threads as and when appropriate. If you feel that a new thread covering a particular aspect of the campaign is needed, then please let me know.
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Related thread: Election fever
h/t Brute for link to image
The Traders where I work were trading at 1 am this morning. I overheard a conversation at breakfast this morning along the lines of “it was just like it was when Lehman’s went bust”. Europe and the Euro are in for a tough time. We are at the beginning of the end for the euro as it currently is.
I don’t think there is any money in the kitty to wastes on frivolous climate change indulgences. Labour and the Lib Dems will keep the climate change bill as it brings in revenue. If Cameron Governs, he will have to pay special attention to measures that increase costs to the consumer and business, and he will come under increasing pressure to revisit the bill. If he doesn’t take note the Tory Party has the easiest means of moving a leader on. He can not afford to be cavalier in the manner of the last Government.
Tonyb has it right with the greens, their vote was mostly lower that the BNP and UKIP. The Lib Dems did poorly, probably due to their immigration and European policies, but their green policies would not have helped. Rather than being a vote winner the green vote has not counted for anything. Being openly sceptical has not harmed the BNP or UKIP.
This is the forth election in the last 12 months in the UK that has followed this same pattern. When will the penny drop with our leaders