Fun elections
Elections are fun. No, really. Mainly because the media are filled with talk about important issues, rather than the latest story of a cat being stuck up a tree (though, as a Green frog, I am of course very concerned about any imperilled animal, whatever the cause of their imperilment). Elections spread that deliciously idealistic sense that things can change for the better, that opinions do matter, that one can make a difference. It’s all very heady stuff.
Anyway, the point of this prolonged bleating, I mean croaking, is to rather inelegantly introduce the start of our coverage of the British general election campaign, which officially kicked off this week. I’ll try and keep you up with the play. Today, some interesting snippets.
First, Labour’s claims when it was seeking office in the mid 1990s that it was serious about dealing with the environment have been flatly discredited. Back then, Tony Blair said he wanted Britain to reduce its carbon emissions by 20 percent by 2010. As the accompanying graphic shows (thanks to the Economist), ten years later, they’re not even heading in the right direction. Stephen Tindale, the executive director of Greenpeace, helped Labour write its response to pressing environmental challenges back in the mid 90s. Now, he’s scathing of its efforts after eight years in power. “If you get climate change wrong,” he says, “you can’t get anything else right.”
Second, the Guardian has an interesting chat thread going about whether it’s worth it for British voters to go with the Greens. It’s a reasonable question to ask. As we well know, under first-past-the-post, it’s exceedingly difficult for minor parties like the Greens to get a leg-up into Parliament. So, for Green-leaning voters, is it best to cast your vote for a Green who has very little chance of winning, to send a signal to the major parties that they should take more heed of environmental concerns? Or is it best to try and get involved in the major parties directly and try from within to get them to mend their environmental ways?
In any case, these are debates that’ll rage on when the Greens launch their campaign on Tuesday (hat tip, bloggreen). The challenge for the British Greens is much greater than for us, their Kiwi counterparts. The media take notice of us because we’re in Parliament and have a reasonable chance of being in government after the election. The same can’t be said for the British Greens. So, how to get noticed? It’ll be fascinating to see what they come up with.
