Policy & Politics Blog
7 July 2011
Lib Dems and nuclear - and a little more left and right.
It's been an interesting week.
During a Parliamentary debate earlier this week not a single Liberal Democrat MP voted against a nuclear subsidy that will see over £1 billion being handed to existing nuclear power stations. This is a dramatic abandonment of their 'no nuclear subsidy' manifesto promise.
Also, after blogging on Monday about Mark Lynas being wrong to write us off as left wing, I've received a few comments and complaints. Some people felt that I and/or Friends of the Earth may actually be right wing. Although getting complaints about being too left wing and too right wing all within a week may help to make the point I was trying to make in the blog - which is that we are neither.
Interestingly, much of the objection has been over my labelling of things like the feed-in tariff scheme and the polluter pays principle as right wing or market-based. No-one objected to the policies -only to the description I attached to them. This probably indicates that it's pointless to label policies as belonging to the right or left.
The important thing is whether or not they help us live within the planet's limitations and deliver environmental justice.
However, a number of interesting points were raised which I'll return to shortly.
In the meantime, I'd welcome your thoughts on this - martyn.williams at foe.co.uk
Posted by Martyn Williams | 07 Jul 2011 | Climate Change
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