Fly more?

Tory Ministers hate being asked if they think people should do less of something for the sake of the environment. They tend to try to bridge very quickly to talking about green growth and a forthcoming technological advance that they are investing public money in. 

Yesterday, for example, on the Today programme, Alok Sharma MP (Secretary of State for Business, and President of COP26) was asked:

“Do you want us to fly less?”

AS: “That’s a matter of personal choice, but in terms of what else we have set out in this ten point plan...”

Today: “Hang on a sec.... The Government is not going to discourage people, or prevent them in other ways from flying?”

AS: “No, that is not what the ten point plan is about, it’s about ensuring that we are supporting sunrise industries of the future, which are going to create jobs and at the same time cut emissions.” 

Interviewers on shows like Today know that Ministers like Sharma are going to respond like this. And usually they just let them; they rarely labour the point, they just move on to ask them about something else (or Brexit). Yesterday, immediately after Sharma’s vague ‘sunrise industries of the future’ ramblings, Today went with:

“OK, let’s go on to heating.” 

And just like that Sharma is off the hook and doesn’t need to defend the contradictions of a Government that has a £12bn ‘Ten point Environment plan’, while also having a plan to expand Heathrow airport, a plan to invest £27bn into road building and a plan to pump £16.5bn into military expansion. (They many have other dubious plans too.)

Wouldn’t it be great if, instead of teeing up Sharma to waffle on about the Green Homes Grant (which, by the way, is already faltering), Today had gone with:

“Presumably, as Business Secretary, you want people to fly more don’t you? How about driving? Do you want people to drive more? Do you want them to eat more meat and dairy? Do you want them to buy more material goods and services? Do you want them to go to more events, pubs, cinemas, restaurants? All of that would be good for business, for jobs and for the economy wouldn’t it?”

If the Government was serious about averting a climate and ecological catastrophe, they’d need to reply ‘no’ to almost all these questions.

They wouldn’t though would they? But they also wouldn’t directly say ‘yes’ either. Then again, they don’t need to; their other policies and spending plans make clear what their priorities are. 

So, if you ask a Tory Minister if they want us to fly less, make sure you also ask them if they want us to fly, drive, build, consume, eat, drink, etc. more. 

Will they still say ‘that’s a matter of personal choice’?

I somehow doubt they’d be quite so ambivalent about it.