HILARY BENN PLAYS KING CANUTE

"One of the great memories of my life was walking alongside the thousands and thousands who marched in Edinburgh on that summer’s day two years ago to Make Poverty History. In 2009, I want to be able to march alongside millions to Make Climate Change History".

Hilary Benn, the Labour government minister responsible for the Climate Change Bill, made the above comment in a speech on 29th October 2007. It is an odd situation for a member of a government to go on a march to encourage his own government to take a particular action. He could have simply argued his point with his cabinet colleagues; but that would not be seen by the public.

Of course we would all love to make poverty history (and conquer disease and eliminate crime etc), but we all really know that poverty will always exist and no amount of marching will eradicate it. It is a political slogan, a grandiose pipe-dream which cannot happen until all the corrupt regimes that result in their people remaining in poverty are eliminated.

What does he actually mean by "make climate change history"? Does he mean that he hopes to keep the climate exactly as it is today? That is the actual meaning of what he said. If so, does he really believe that we can prevent the forces of nature. In reality, there is no way mankind can control the forces that change our climate and to suggest that we can is being dishonest. It seems that despite our great increase in knowledge and understanding, we are still vulnerable to someone coming up with a simplistic soundbite.

We know that the climate is constantly changing all over the world in different ways. Some changes are beneficial, such as increased rainfall in a dry area, or slight warming in cold regions. Others are obviously harmful changes, but the point is that there are many different climates changing in many different ways. Simplistic slogans are a meaningless response and Benn should know it. He wants to stop the bad changes and allow the good ones. This is a child-like form of gesture politics. Where are the grown up politicians?