Thirty six years ago, on this day, May 9th, 1989 that nice young Tony Blair has an opinion piece in the Guardian. It includes the immortal lines
“From the moment Mrs Thatcher took up the greenhouse effect she has been at risk. Market forces cannot solve it. Indeed, they may have caused it.”
And later
“It is wholly impractical to solve the greenhouse effect through increased reliance on nuclear power.”
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 353ppm. As of 2025 it is 430ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was that Margarat Thatcher had performed an astonishing reverse-ferret in September 1988, and brought “the greenhouse effect” onto the political agenda. Then,her bluff was called by various NGOs, who threw down a thirty point “green gauntlet” in November. It was obvious she was all mouth and no trousers. Labour had to have a response, and this was it…
What I think we can learn from this is political parties are always seeking out – or responding to – “issues” thrown up by social movements, the media.
What happened next. A few weeks later Blair would be rubbishing the idea of any carbon taxes.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
References
Blair, T. 1989. People switch on to the age of the green light-bulb. The Guardian, May 9, p.9
Also on this day:
May 9, 2009 – Another white flag goes up on the “Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme”