Have MPs started their holidays early? If so, Bangkok’s loss is our gain. Westminster was cool and peaceful; the Commons half empty.
Only 42 Labour MPs attended Ed Miliband’s [pictured] statement on the climate, billed as “historic”. The rest will remember where they were when it happened because they had such a lovely day at Lord’s. [emphasis, links added]
“The UK’s climate is getting hotter and wetter,” ranted Ed.
“Thank God there’s somebody in this chamber trying to save the planet!” squealed Stella Creasy. She can probably thank the whips that there was anyone in it at all.
A few sad sacks with nowt better to do congratulated the Environment Secretary for putting solar panels on school halls, gyms, even on the pupils – but this was a subject Ed would’ve been quite happy to talk about all by himself.
Indeed, I’m told by concerned members of staff that he frequently does.
“I notice there are young people sitting in the gallery,” he observed emotionally, thinking of all the rain they’ll have to endure, “future generations who have genuine anxiety about what world they’re going to inherit.”
One of the teenagers had a green mohawk. I felt more anxiety about meeting him down a dark alley than he’s probably ever felt about coastal erosion.
If the kids looked bored, who are we to judge? Labour plays its eco card by a tedious script.
Appeal to bipartisanship, “this is not a party political matter”, then call anyone who asks questions a Right-wing crank.
The Tories requested a costing for net zero; Miliband denounced them as “anti-science… anti-jobs and anti-energy security”.
This wasn’t historic so much as histrionic, though at least Ed believes what he says.
Read rest at The Telegraph
