By Ethan Thoburn
We all understand that the environment is one of the most pressing political issues in this day and age, which requires a reasonable, rational solution to the growing problem. However, the solution isn’t supergluing yourself to London Bridge or chaining yourself to Carriage Gates or even dancing around Parliament Square whilst bringing London to a standstill, which Extinction Rebellion (XR) feel is necessary as they appear to neglect the hard work of our government.
The current PM may be the greenest Tory there is since his time as Mayor of London where he introduced the first public bike hire scheme, fondly known as Boris Bikes saying he hoped them to be: “as popular and seen as much as the black cab and red double-decker buses”. Also, Mr Johnson cited plans during his Mayorship to rid London of all fossil fuel-powered cars by the year 2034, a whole six years before the year 2040 when diesel cars will be essentially banned. More recently, Boris Johnson also aired his disagreement with President Trump for withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. Environment Secretary, Theresa Villiers’ progressive policy idea offers tax relief for green firms that run at carbon zero or are innovating ‘green’ products. Take firms like Nissan, Tesla and Toyota who all produce electric cars, under this scheme, these firms would be exempt or would benefit from tax breaks and reliefs rather than punish non-green manufacturers with crazy levels of tax, that way it incentivises to innovate and manufacture eco-friendly automobiles.
However, what about Infrastructure? Unfortunately, this cannot be fully rolled out by the government due to excessive costs that would leave the Treasury in the same financial strife as in 2009. Pro-business policies outlined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid regarding start-up firms and entrepreneurial grants, similar to those introduced by Mrs Thatcher in the 1980s seem to be the ideal solution. The idea is that firms would supply the infrastructure to service stations and garages as well as in streets, in cooperation with car manufacturers to produce essentially a network of charging points.
Moving back to our friends at XR - if they really want to be seen as a serious pressure group, they will have to act like one and stop pulling foolish stunts, recruiting hypocritical celebrities and harassing politicians all whilst stopping Londoners going about their business. Not only that, their protests have been revealed to cost the Metropolitan Police over £37 million which is, in anybody’s opinion, a mind-boggling figure, but it doesn’t stop there. The opportunity cost of policing is far greater. These people are taking officers away from fighting real crime such as the rising amount of knife crime in London, thefts, motorbike gangs, fraud and catching the real criminals. Additionally, the cost to ordinary Londoners who are losing out on business, the small businessmen and women of the world who rely on getting about London in their van, car, taxi or on the bus - these are the people who keep the nation moving. After all, Napoleon said that we are: “a nation of shopkeepers” and these shopkeepers cannot get to their work because of these people who scaremonger the rest of us.
There was one gentleman in his van stuck in traffic in Trafalgar Square because XR protestors had blocked the roundabout. He explained that he had now lost a whole days' work which meant he didn’t get paid. Let this be a lesson that blocking roads doesn’t affect government officials and Ministers directly - it affects the working man and the working woman - stopping them from earning a living. The man went on to say that he agreed with the message, but not how they put it across. He needs his van for a living and currently, there are no cheaper alternatives. This example proves that blocking roads will not get the public onside and only sensible pro-business policies will.
Let’s take a closer look at some of XR’s policies, of which some politicians and even parties are supporting, for example, the first is to achieve net-zero by 2025. This would be absolutely unachievable unless we banned all flights, globally not nationally, the state rationing of meat and the confiscation of all diesel and petrol cars. The BBC’s Andrew Neil discussed this matter on his show recently. Now be honest, that would be absurd, and no rational person would seriously support that. The agreed position of the UN which has the support of over 40 countries, and has over 90 authors, all of whom are scientists - is that the 2050 target is a reasonable, achievable and progressive target.
Another one of XR’s policy ideas is to introduce the Citizens’ Assembly to inform the government what real people think’. Now if we do survey the people of the UK on what their action would be then I would hazard a guess that most would agree with the policy ideas I have outlined and that the Conservative Party support or Ministers personally support. There are far too many problems with the Citizens’ Assembly to mention, but I’ll briefly outline a few, for example, firstly it will be of random selection which has numerous drawbacks including a potential unrepresentative makeup, rather similar to the current Parliament! Secondly, many of these people will not be as informed as politicians and committees, which deal with these matters on a daily basis and look at the bigger economic picture rather than satisfying their own desires and agendas although that may be the feeling sometimes. Direct democracy, as proven by the Ancient Greeks does not work so there’s a reason why we don't do that! Take referendums for example, three and a half years after we voted for Brexit we still haven’t left and now we have so-called ‘People’s Vote’ campaigners demanding a re-run; the SNP still want independence even though Scotland voted ‘No’. Referendums only inflame the issue rather than solve it as the losing side will likely badger on about it, and in the concept of John Stuart Mill we end up with “tyranny of the majority”.