- "This will be the Greenest Government Ever" (Cameron) So:
a. Abolition of the Sustainable Development Commission, the "Government's Green watchdog"
Here's Jonathon Porrit on the subject.
Also they will cut:
# Audit Commission # English Heritage # Commission on Architecture and the built Environment (perhaps) # Carbon Trust/Energy Savings Trust to be decided # Advisory committees on organic standards/packaging/pesticides # Agricultural Wages boards/committees # British Waterways # Commons Commissioners # Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards # Health Protection Agency # A whole string of independent committees on radiation/food safety/carcinogens/air pollution and health # Commission for Integrated Transport # Animal Procedures Committee (to be decided) # Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution
# Joint Nature Conservation Committee and the Environment Agency (to be decided -- they're legally required as part of enacting various laws and can't simply be erased, but their scope could be severely diminished -- as in the days of the former HMIP).
Thanks to Paul Mobbs for this list.
There may well be a case for slimming down, cutting salaries, and making these quangos more efficient, but the Cleggeron is throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
b. Government will not honour a pledge to make it a criminal offence to posess, or bring into the country, illegal timber.
c. Are they about to dilute the meaning of "zero carbon homes?
d. Treasury wants to domesticate DECC civil servants by siting them in Treasury
e Reneged on promises to include early adopters of renewables in the Feed in Tarriff
f LibDems have reneged on opposition to nuclear power.
- "Four Steps to a Fairer Britain". LibDem election slogan.
a. Cuts will impact hardest on poor.
[27.10.10] Guardian on effect of spending review on environment:
"far from being the 'greenest government ever'"
[update 26.10.10]
It is not all about reducing the deficit. They are still, like any Government, prepared to spend billions of our money on pointless ventures:
£3 bn on Lansley's NHS privatisation reforms
£2 bn on spying on our e-comms
Excellent post Richard.
ReplyDeleteMy contribution here http://greenreading.blogspot.com/2010/09/blairalike-contest-clegg-cam-miliband.html
and
http://greenconstructionuk.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/zero-carbon-definition-delayed/