Effective Environmental Action – Political Stalemate

Why is it not possible to establish decisive government action on the environment in the UK?

I believe we are caught in a stalemate:

• The public appears sceptical but open to a change of behaviour and is angrily looking to government for action which it is then likely to resent.

• Every political party has articulated a move to a more sustainable approach to government but has backed away because of; the apparent suspicion of the public, the fear of political capital being made by one of the other parties, or active resistance to change from their own party members.

How can we break through this impasse?

I feel that there are 3 possible scenarios:

‘Cometh the Man’ (or woman)

One of the leaders chooses to takes a personal leadership role regarding climate change. I feel this is possible but it will need to be based on personal conviction and at great political risk. David Cameron attempted this, but i believe backed away from the position when he attracted criticism from his own party rank and file.

Much as though I would like to see Gordon Brown take leadership on this issue, I really don’t believe he has sufficient commitment to these issues. However, a replacement Labour leader such as David Milliband could do this. He would need to be very open to the national and global problems we face and effect some kind of ‘political healing’ with the electorate. He would in effect need to atone for the actions of both Blaire and Brown. This is possible but unlikely.

Nick Clegg from the Liberal Democrats is already trying to perform this role although the distribution of Lib Dem support and the UK electoral system makes the prospect of real power very unlikely.

Sorrow and re-connection

There is a global event that re-connects people with both their compassion and anxieties about global sustainability. This is obviously not a strategy that we want to happen.

Bottom up change

There appears to be a widespread frustration with our top-down governance system across the our society. This is apparent from posts from blogs from all political persuasions. Again and again people say that there needs to be change and it should come from the ‘grass roots’ or it needs to be ‘bottom up’. Top down solutions and grand plans are rejected as unworkable and more of the same.

I think the NGO’s could support people to have a more visible influence within the political system. The Green Standard who published ‘Fit for the Future’ is made up of 9 leading environmental lobby groups who collectively claim to have 5 million supporters. This is a huge number; all three of the major political parties have approximately 560,000 members between them. The difference between the Labour and Conservative vote was 789,524 in absolute terms in the 2005 election. If half of these supporters could be supported to speak to all the parties collectively about their desire for action then this deadlock could be broken.

There is unfortunately one more possible scenario.

Do nothing

National inaction is likely, however I feel that in all honesty inaction will result eventually in one or more of the other 3 scenarios occurring, it can only be a matter of time.

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