Ashes to Ashes
There has been nothing that has really caught my eye in the last few weeks. The budget came and went. Nobody was expecting much with the election on the horizon. Nevertheless we all get a little bit excited just in case there is something interesting, be it good or bad. Well there wasn’t and so it went. In fact most of it did actually go when Gordon called the election leaving parliament little time to do more than reintroduce taxation as they have to do each year. We were all hoping that detail may have been overlooked in the rush to get out on the stump but it was not to be.
Disappointingly there was nothing in the budget to get the renewable sector excited but I suppose having announced the consultation on the RHI in February and the other initiatives it was too much to expect.
And so the election campaign arrived. Well it seems to me that the election campaign has been going on pretty much since Gordon Brown took office. That, along with MP’s expenses and other issues, have turned a lot of people off politics and I was fortunate enough to have booked my annual holiday smack bang in the campaign so missed most of it. I also managed to book my holiday to start on ash day, volcanic ash that is, so did not go as planned although did eventually get away five days later. Little disruption compared with many people so I was fortunate. The whole ash business seemed to dominate the latter part of April and early May with all sorts of disruption and business struggling to cope without planes. Really extraordinary behaviour as there was nothing wrong with phones and trains. For those stuck in far flung places they were lucky to escape the daily diet of politicians.
Ash, or should I say Ashes, again appeared in the form of a poster produced by Labour showing David Cameron in a Gene Hunt pose on the bonnet of the red Audi Quattro. Labour thought they scored a big point with this, Dave thought it was an own goal on Labour’s part as Gene Hunt is a bit of a hero and I thought it was the best bit of the election campaign. I must get one of those posters for my office. An interesting thought for the eco warrior - that Quattro is hardly the most eco friendly car but there are a lot on the road of that age still going strong. I would like to see a calculation of the birth to death (and it did die, being shot to death last week!) carbon footprint of such cars compared to some supposedly eco friendly models that do not seem to last five minutes.
I was disappointed that climate change did not feature more strongly in the campaigns of any of the major parties. Sure it was mentioned but not headline catching stuff. So it was a relief to see the coalition agreement which gave a bit of substance to future policy. Thin on detail but there are stated commitments to emissions reduction, renewable energy, feed in tariffs and related initiatives. We will need to see what comes out from Chris Huhne’s department in the coming weeks as the agreement includes support for an substantial increase in emissions reduction targets. There will clearly be opportunities and challenges for business which will stem from this so be prepared. Also watch out for the next budget on 22 June.