What Rachel Reeves can say that Gordon Brown couldn't

Back in the eighties, I joined Friends of the Earth (FoE) and supported Greenpeace. I read a several books on whale hunting, blood sports and ecology.

For most of this period, the green movement was critical of the mainstream parties for their support of nuclear power and a belief in economic growth.

I was so keen that I applied for a job with Friends of the Earth, narrowly choosing to work for Save the Children instead. My first political meeting was about nuclear power. I have a memory of reading nuclear power for beginners before the meeting. We had a speaker from FoE and one from the nuclear industry.

The FoE guy was very articulate and scared the living bejesus out of me, describing the near miss at three-mile island.

The nuclear industry guy, blasé and confident, swung a spent nuclear fuel rod around his head like a light sabre. Apart from getting needled about three-mile island, he, too, was a brilliant speaker in his way. He opened a part of my brain that led me to think more deeply about energy generation.

When I became an MP, though in favour of nuclear energy, I was troubled by what I thought was the nuclear industry's unnecessary culture of secrecy.

I followed the public debate with interest, particularly as leading lights in the green movement began to move towards an understanding that nuclear energy was part of our low-carbon future.

The Greens have moved a lot on nuclear energy but haven't yet reached an accommodation with the idea of economic growth. To be fair to green thinkers, fossil fuel emissions and living standards have risen in tandem for the last three hundred years. Coal, then oil and gas, brought enormous prosperity as the planet heated. Yet, according to the Economist, that has not been the case for 33 countries over the past decade.

When you think that 100 years ago, there were 1.9 million people employed in the coal mining industry, you realise that our past really is another country, now that the UK is one of the 33. Britain, the birthplace of the industrial revolution, now has 80% of its output generated by the service sector, one of the main reasons for the fall in UK emissions. Whatever you think of this fact, service workers tend to use less energy than manufacturing workers. 

The decoupling of growth and emissions has mainly come from reducing energy use, but significant gains are yet to be made in making energy greener in the first place. The big task for the current crop of world leaders is to expand the pool of countries that can join us in decoupling economic growth and emissions increases. 

What does this mean for a future Labour government?

I'm excited about this. As shadow chancellor on the brink of government, Rachel Reeves can say things that John Smith and Gordon Brown could not as easily say when they were shadow chancellor in the nineties. 

It's this line from her conference speech that matters to our kids and grandkids:

"But our Green Prosperity Plan is about something else too: it is about economic growth." 

Now Labour has set out its stall, the challenge for the Green Party is to explain how they can reduce carbon emissions faster with lower or zero economic growth.

I realise that for brevity, I may be over-simplifying the Green Party UK's economic policies, though I don't think I'm parodying the broader green movement's historical position of economic growth.

I’ve recently started to read opinion polls after a three-year break. One in twenty say they will vote for the Green Party in the next election. Within this group, some will see climate change as their number one issue. I hope Labour campaigners will reach out because these voters really do have a choice to make.

Economic growth, social justice and falling carbon emissions.

This simple aspiration should be on the front cover of Labour’s next manifesto. 

ADHD in adults

ADHD in adults costs society hundreds of billions of dollars each year, worldwide. One in forty adults have the condition. This rises tenfold in the prisoner population.

With these kind of numbers, something is going on that needs a deeper look. That’s why I’ve recently become a trustee of a new charity to support adults with ADHD.

We’re a tiny team of volunteers but we are developing plans to support the adult ADHD community in the UK. If you want to know what its like to live with the condition, this article is a good starting point.

Recommended reading & more?

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