William Hague said last week that the climate change policies of his EU allies posed "no problem". New developments suggest that only half of them support him.
At a Green Alliance event last week, William Hague said that the climate change policies of his EU allies posed “no problem”. But new developments suggest that only half of them – including two Conservative MEPs – support his party’s policy.
Answering a question from Left Foot Forward at the Green Alliance event about climate sceptics in the Tory’s new European party, William Hague said:
“You were probably thinking of President Klaus the President of the Czech Republic, who has a very different view from us on climate change. But he is not even a member of his party any more, or of any party. He fell out with his own party and he is not part of that grouping …
“Our Dutch partner in that group was evaluated by Greenpeace as the greenest party in the Netherlands, and in the Netherlands that’s saying something. They’re part of our group so there is no problem over these policies.”
But the Independent reported this morning that:
“In the European Parliament last week, two Tory MEPs, Daniel Hannan and Roger Helmer, voted against a motion calling for the Copenhagen talks to agree an 80 per cent cut in emissions by 2050 – the official Tory policy.
“They were among 18 members of the breakaway European Conservatives and Reformists Group, including its Polish leader Michal Kaminski, to oppose such a deal.”
The roll-call vote of MEPs shows that only 26 of the 54-member ECR voted in favour of the motion. Not a single Polish member voted for the policy. Also voting against were three Czechs and Derk Jan Eppink, the sole Belgian member of the ECR, as well as far-right sceptics including Nick Griffin and Nigel Farage.
Eppink is the Ljist Dedecker (LDD) party in the European Parliament. Their manifesto (p.28) in the recent European elections stated that:
“Europe has seen ice ages when there were fewer humans, and no industry. Some scientists argue that global warming is caused by solar activity, not humans. In short: we do not know. An effective environmental policy is hindered by a theological debate about climate change where a form of eco-fundamentalism prevails.”
Meanwhile, the party praised by Greenpeace for their green credentials have previously featured on this blog. The ECR includes Peter van Dalen a member of the Dutch Christian Union. The party was aligned in the June election with the Reformed Political Party (SGP). The SGP were found in 2005 by a court in The Hague to have violated the UN Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women because, according to the BBC, it refused to allow women to become full members. So no problem then.
UPDATE 17.07
Politics Home is reporting that, “the feeling among most MPs, journalists and other political insiders is that Cameron’s ‘green agenda’ will become progressively less central to his message.”
24 Responses to “Hague: European allies are “no problem” on climate change”
Billy Blofeld
Will,
You are operating in a post Damian McBride world. Where until recently government resources appeared to be supporting blogs which are financially supported by unions who themselves are funded by the government, and fed attack lines by staff directly working for the Prime Minister, paid for by the tax payer.
Financial transparency would go a long way to building trust in your blog, given this blog’s links to CWU, that Jessica Assato is a Director of both Progress and Left Foot Forwards Ltd and that your father is in an influential position in government and able to direct funding towards favoured unions and think tanks.
Sunlight is the best disinfectant. Who pays what? How about a breakdown of donors by percentage?
How else are we to judge that Left Foot Forwards is not following the Damian McBride / Derek Draper model?
Billy Blofeld
This is interesting……..</a
Anon E Mouse
Will – I wasn’t suggesting any impropriety was occurring here and regarding money I cannot remember how many items on this blog involve money, usually regarding members of the opposition so the comments do fit the general topics on the blog.
Billy – Whilst I agree there may be an element of nepotism regarding Jack Straw and Will’s position here I’m not sure that Jack would be involved in who gets what unions / government wise – I think that’s down to Jack Dromey ultimately.
I would also add that I have been posting on this blog pretty much since it started (nice to see Will promote it through the Murdoch press, just as Labour have done happily for over 12 years now) and have to say that generally Will Straw is polite, seems to be intelligent,honest and decent (if a little misguided which I put down to youth) and has never stooped to personal attacks.
I personally wouldn’t cast him in the Damian McBride and Derek Draper mold.
I will make no comments on my opinion of Shamik Das.
willstraw
Hi Billy,
Thanks for your concern but please excuse me if I suggest, given the nature of your blog – entertaining though it is, that you have an agenda here. We have nothing to hide, have listed our funders, and will file full accounts to companies house at the end of the year.
Your link to Dizzy is interesting but just a case of Labour playing catch up with the Tories. Do you suppose Tim Montgomerie and Iain Dale get such good exclusives through guesswork?
Indeed, Jeremy Hunt said earlier this year “Having seen the online team that has been assembled [by CCHQ] I am hopeful that we’ll be able to stay ahead of the game.”
But if you’re interested in transparency, I wonder what your views on the TPA’s funding situation which is more opaque than ours (and supports a much bigger team).
Best wishes,
Will
willstraw
Anon,
Thanks for the clarification and kind remarks. I promise you that Shamik is a decent, intelligent guy as well – can we draw a line under your previous altercation? I know he’s happy to do so.
Will