Try as I might, I just can’t get excited about the election. The debate already seems to have slipped into a tedious game of petty accountancy on which it is virtually impossible to have a considered opinion as the numbers are hidden by smoke and mirrors.

Election yawn

For me, none of the parties have spelled out a grand vision which is compelling and attractive. For example, the discussion around National Insurance could have been part of a broader debate, discussing whether we should be shifting the tax burden away from jobs towards resources, which would lead to more employment and more resource efficiency.

The discussion about public sector efficiencies could have focussed around how we are going to use new technologies to create better quality services that produce less carbon. There has also been very little debate about the ‘big ticket’ items of public expenditure such as Trident, which could significantly and realistically shift the financial needle.

Given the paucity of the debate there is absolutely no chance that a clear vision of a low carbon future will feature high in the electioneering, despite the fact that the leaders have acknowledged the seriousness of climate change. At a time when we need bold leadership our politicians are letting us down by feeding us a political diet of petty playground squabbles with overly simplistic solutions.

Professor Giddens

On Wednesday, I was privileged to hear Professor Lord Anthony Giddens presenting his views on climate change. It was an excellent and entertaining summary.

He outlined three camps in the climate change debate. The sceptics who are not overly represented by scientists, the mainstream reflected by the reports of the IPCC, and the radicals who believe that there is a risk that change might happen more rapidly or more unexpectedly than the mainstream. This latter group has a high representation of scientists and Professor Giddens explained why he felt that their views were more compelling to him than the others.

His presentation then lead to one of the most extraordinary and depressing debates I have ever attended. A whole variety of elderly Lords and other dignitaries who seemed to be pickled in gin launched into an attack on the Professor’s views, not based on any scientific evidence, but on random statements such as the fact that during the Roman times grapes were grown in Britain and that we have just had a very cold winter. The illogicality of their position was amazing to behold.  

One of the issues that Professor Giddens had raised was that climate change represents a highly complex inter-generational debate as people who are currently making decisions are helping to create the climate that future generations will inherit.

If anybody under the age of 30 had been at the discussion they would have had every right to be furious about the level of rational thinking going on amongst certain parts of our Upper Chamber of Government on an issue that will affect the quality of their lives. 

Malcolm McLaren

Like many people I was shocked to hear of the death of Malcolm McLaren this week. I am perpetually surprised by the number of people I have met who claimed to be at the seminal Sex Pistols gig at the 100 club, which must have had the capacity of the Shay Stadium on that night.  

I definitely wasn’t there but the whole McLaren ethos of always questioning the status quo and being prepared to be a flamboyant failure has always stuck with me and many others of my generation.

The importance of being ‘an itch in the pants of the establishment’ was clearly shown in an excellent Dispatches programme which set about questioning how the London Marathon uses its position of pre-eminence to distribute money to charities. The programme threw up many questions which the Marathon needs to answer with transparency and honesty, which I hope they do rather than with potential mitigation which seems to be their favoured method of response to-date.

The mighty greens

Over Easter I headed back down to Plymouth to stay with my parents. This invariably involves a trek to Home Park where we saw Plymouth Argyle out muscled 2-0 by Middlesbrough. The defeat followed by a similar result at Watford virtually condemns the ‘mighty’ greens to relegation.

Given their predicament I was amazed to see that their next home game with Newcastle will be the first game ever to be totally carbon neutral and this will include calculating the carbon emissions of the fans getting to the ground and then off-setting these. The announcement did restore a faint bit of pride in the club as the prospect of a new season doing battle with Exeter City and Yeovil looms!

Bad climate change joke

Two planets are chatting. One says I’m not feeling too good. What’s the matter the other one asks? I think I am suffering from an outbreak of people, comes the reply. Oh don’t worry about that, says the second planet, it won’t last for long.

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