STT readers might think we’ve just struck a rich and organic theme.
In our last post we looked at the way Canadian farmers liken wind industry spin to the stuff they shovel out of their dairies. Well it seems that British PM, David Cameron isn’t afraid to “muck” in too.
Here’s The Daily Mail’s take on Dave’s smelly little policy dilemma.
Cut the green crap!
The Daily Mail
Jason Groves and Martin Robinson
21 November 2013
Cameron reveals his private view of energy taxation and orders ministers to dump the eco-charges adding £110-a-year to bills
- The Prime Minister has publicly promised to ‘roll back’ green taxes
- But a senior Tory source said Mr Cameron’s message is far blunter
- ‘He’s telling everyone, “We’ve got to get rid of this green crap”,’ source says
- In 2010 the PM pledged: ‘We will be the greenest government ever’
- Downing Street source says they ‘do not recognise’ the green crap phrase
- Nick Clegg says Coalition ‘aren’t going to turn our back on the environment’
David Cameron has ordered ministers to ditch the ‘green crap’ blamed for driving up energy bills and making business uncompetitive, it is claimed.
The Prime Minister, who once pledged to lead the ‘greenest government ever’, has publicly promised to ‘roll back’ green taxes, which add more than £110 a year to average fuel bills.
But a senior Tory source said Mr Cameron’s message in private is far blunter.
The source said: ‘He’s telling everyone, “We’ve got to get rid of all this green crap.” He’s absolutely focused on it.’
Tory high command has also privately abandoned Mr Cameron’s pre-election mantra ‘vote blue, go green’. ‘It’s vote blue, get real, now – and woe betide anyone who doesn’t get the memo,’ the source said.
The Prime Minister’s comments relate to his bid to cut fuel bills by removing green taxes, the source said. But they will horrify environmental campaigners.
But a senior Downing Street source said: ‘We do not recognise this phrase’.
Meeting supporters of the HS2 high-speed rail project outside Number 10 this morning, Mr Cameron was asked by journalists whether he still believed in the environmental agenda.
‘This is a part of it,’ he replied. ‘We have got the world’s first green investment bank, we have got great support for our green technology industries. We have got the first nuclear power station since 1995. This is a government investing in important green technologies.’
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said today green levies are not ‘all crap’ and added that Mr Cameron agrees with him.
‘The Prime Minister and I, funnily enough, were discussing it just yesterday so it so happens I don’t think that’s a fair reflection of his views,’ he said.
‘We both want to see policies, where we are control of them in government, made as cost-effective as possible without cutting our commitment to reducing carbon commitments and looking after the environment.’
In opposition, Mr Cameron made great play of his green credentials as he tried to detoxify the Conservative Party’s image.
In 2006 he travelled in the Arctic Circle with a pack of huskies to highlight his concern about climate change.
He was repeatedly pictured cycling to the Commons – though this backfired when it emerged his shoes and papers followed in a car. And he even applied to put a wind turbine on the roof of his family home.
But although he still pays lip service to the need to tackle climate change, his enthusiasm for green issues waned as the Government battled the economic crisis.
In September, Chancellor George Osborne said Britain should not be ‘in front of the rest of the world’ on tackling climate change.
And the Government has driven through radical planning reforms to boost the economy, which critics claim could lead to the concreting over of large parts of the Green Belt.
The revelations come as the Prime Minister is locked in a dispute with the Lib Dems about his plan to cut the costly green levies on energy bills.
Mr Cameron wants to scrap most of the charges, which help subsidise wind farms and pay for home insulation. But Nick Clegg is insisting they must stay.
The Prime Minister is understood to be pushing for a delay in the rollout of the Energy Company Obligation scheme, which adds about £60 a year to average bills.
The £1.3 billion scheme, which pays for insulating the homes of the poor, has been criticised for waste and bureaucracy.
It is due to be rolled out across the country by 2015 but could now be delayed until 2017. The Tories also want to see cuts to subsidies for wind turbines and solar panels.
The Government’s green record came under attack from 41 environmental groups this week.
The umbrella group Wildlife and Countryside Link said the Government was failing to deliver a third of its commitments to protect the natural environment.
Dr Elaine King, the group’s director, said: ‘David Cameron promised the greenest government ever. Using the Government’s own promises as a yardstick, these findings show he’s failed to stick to his plan.’
May 2010: ‘We will be the greenest government ever’
November 2013: ‘We’ve got to get rid of all this green crap’
Prime Minister David Cameron
Downing Street said today the Prime Minister had not abandoned his commitment to the environment.
‘He has been quite clear about rolling back the impact of levies on energy bills, but only last week in Sri Lanka he was talking about the importance of tackling climate change,’ said the Number 10 source.
Mr Cameron made clear during that Sri Lanka visit that he believed the evidence of global warming was ‘growing’ and thought it was right to take ‘preventative and mitigating steps’ in response.
Responding to speculation that man-made climate change may be to blame for the devastating typhoon in the Philippines, the PM said then: ‘I’ll leave the scientists to speak for themselves about the link between severe weather events and climate change.
‘But the evidence seems to me to be growing. As a practical politician, I think the sensible thing is to say let’s take preventative and mitigating steps given the chances this might be the case.’
The Daily Mail
Dave is in fine company when he calls the UK’s insane, so-called “green”, energy policies “crap”.
The new Australian head boy, Tony Abbott was pilloried by the lefty-press some time back for using the same tag in relation to the climate change myth: although he went further and called it “absolute crap“.
Action Man Abbott is a man true to his word. He’s sworn a pact in blood that his new government will axe the ridiculously expensive and utterly ineffective Carbon Tax (the one that Julia Gillard told us we would never have under Labor and got lumbered with anyway). The Bill to scrap it passed the Lower House this week. If it doesn’t get through the Senate on the first pass, it surely will after June when a newly composed Senate will pass it in a heartbeat.
STT hears that Tony is listening very carefully to Angus “The Enforcer” Taylor on how to undo our ridiculous Renewable Energy Target. Angus has recently assembled a top notch collection of energy market economists to help him dismantle the wind industry scam piece by stinking piece.
For Dave Cameron it could be a case of “watch and learn” from Tony.
STOP THESE THINGS 