Another cloud cuckoo plan destined for a U-turn?

October 30, 2006

The press are full of Millibrand's plan for slapping Green taxes on all of us which could raise the bills of most of us by four figures. Stealth taxes on cars, plane fares, holidays, consumer goods etc etc. On the face of it, laudable. But does anyone think cutting back in this country will make a difference? In China alone factories burn fuel day and night, oil, gas, coal, timber and briquettes of British garbage. The Chinese don't care. If the British exercised every conceivable privation to help the clean-air campaign, the effects would be wiped out in an afternoon by China alone. And add India's 1.1 billion people to China's 1.4 billion too. They are all trying to industrialise and to do that they burn, and burn and burn. It's all carbon-based. And add to that the fact that rain forests are being cut back by an area the size of an English county every day. I used to live in Hong Kong many years ago and friends there now tell me that more times than not there is a dense grey cloud over the place. Coming from the north. Praps there is someone on this site who could tell us about this. Okay, it would be good if all countries could get an agreement to do something. In fact, I think it's imperative but China, India etc won't and frankly it's like spitting in the wind. I would be interested to see how this plan of Millibrand's develops. But as this Govt has a strong history of U-turns, don't hold your breath...!

jon_hall · October 30, 2006