Archives for posts with tag: 10:10

Should we laugh at the BNP?

December 10, 2009 //
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Jim Jepps praises Peter Cranie for not taking up the BBC’s airtime offer to debate climate change with Nick Griffin. Quite right too. After watching this excellent explanation of the UAE “climategate” emails, well trailed as a “controversy” in the media, I was beginning to wonder if the BBC wasn’t about to go back to it’s old damaging balance position. It hasn’t exactly won the public’s affection over its stance on giving the BNP disproportionate time on news bulletins and Question Time.

But what do you do if you must share a platform with the BNP?

The London Assembly gives me regular access to the BNP’s “mr chips” Assembly member Richard Barnbrook. Word is, by the way, that he only ever eats plates of chips in the cafeteria, which might explain a few things. This week he tried to deny climate change by helpfully pointing out that there aren’t any cows on Mars. He can barely get through a question without confusing himself; statistics are his favourite form of masochism. A quick search for his name on the GLA web site is good for at least half an hour of entertainment, if you’re bored.

Of course this all means he’s also very bad at getting anything done. If you can’t formulate a really cutting question, or trick the Mayor into giving a commitment, you’re not going to get anywhere. And that’s not all. Aside from overt racism and xenophobia, Barnbrook purports to defend the working class. This would be why he denounced 10:10 as a “stealth tax on the poor”.

But if you really care about elderly people not being able to heat their homes, wouldn’t you support a campaign that wants better insulation? If you want families on low incomes to have access to cheap, quality food wouldn’t you worry about climate change pushing up food costs? Isn’t low cost public transport pretty handy for people on low incomes?

The consensus seems to be that if you must share a platform with the BNP, you either try to ignore them (as Boris Johnson affects to do), or your laugh at them (as most London Assembly members seem to do).

All jolly fun, but I wonder if any of those potential BNP voters – the type who aren’t particularly racist but just feel let down on housing or crime by Labour – if they ever see this. What would they think? What does it achieve? How can we make clear that Richard Barnbrook is (a) completely useless at pushing his agenda and (b) not very good at standing up for the people who vote for him? How can politicians who must share a platform get this message out effectively?

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Climate change in 25 minutes

September 15, 2009 //
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I took some time out of my brief in-between-jobs holiday to speak to some students from Alleyn’s School in East Dulwich. The Geography Society invited me to talk about climate change and the Green Party. What do you say in 25 minutes to young people who are  amongst the highest consumers in Southwark, but also potentially dedicated citizens who can do a lot to tackle the problem?

I think my talk got a bit confused, but perhaps that’s OK because I really wanted to help them understand just how complicated the whole topic is. Beware the doomsayers who claim there’s nothing we can do, but also beware optimists who offer the solution in the form of ten easy steps!

On reflection, these would be my two main messages to young people.

First, recognise that climate change fundamentally changes the way we think about politics and our personal lives. Just as we accept basic ethical constraints, so we must accept ecological constraints. If we accept that we can’t kill someone for fun, we must also accept that we cannot put more than a safe level of greenhouse gases into the astmosphere. Whilst Labour made great strides in bowing to pressure and introducing the revolutionary Climate Change Act, they share with the Tories and Lib Dems a reluctance to acknowledge that economic growth, poverty alleviation and other basic goals cannot override this constraint. So long as they seek to expand Heathrow airport and offer half-hearted tokens their approach will be mired by contradiction and denial; so long as they talk of terrorism and the recession as higher political priorities than climate change, they show they simply don’t understand the gravity and urgency of climate change.

Second, when we ask “what can we do?” it’s important to understand that this very complicated problem has a very complicated mix of solutions. We must individually do our bit, consuming less and better, but let’s not worry about being angelic! Sign up to 10:10 because it asks individuals, organisations and governments to join together. Perhaps the best thing we can do is to ask of everyone else: what are you doing? Ask local politicians, business owners, schools, family and friends.

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