I first noticed David Cameron when he took over the UK Tories’ leadership last year from Michael Howard. First of all, I’ve always liked Blair; charming, young and best of all, green. That doesn’t necessarily translate into support for the Labor Party though. (Okay, okay, Labour. Happy now?) I don’t know enough of British politics to choose side but Blair’s personality and his green tendency is strong enough for me tip my hat to the Labour Party. However, Blair’s possible successor, Gordon Brown isn’t as fun as Blair himself. And Brown seems a little bit closer to the red side as far as I’m concerned. Cameron on the other hand, while coming from a conservative, is green. With a green leadership, the Tories are starting to suit me. It’s a sort of a green-blue party. I consider myself as a libertarian green and hence, it’s only natural for me to be attracted to the new Tories.
Nevertheless, there are accusations that David Cameron is doing a Kerry – trying to impress too many people at once. New stuff is also coming out about him; despite earlier the media hailing him for cycling to the Houses, that cycling activity is apparently a gimmick. I really hope hypocrisy isn’t the case. Reason is, if Cameron’s really sincere, this is something good for the green. Why? Simple. When was the last time two major parties in a country with great global influence last tried to be greener than the other?
From the top of my head and from my limited knowledge, I can’t think of any.
And certainly, Malaysia comes nowhere near such scenario despite the Badawi administration’s initial green slogans. Like so many of the administration efforts, his green effort is starting to look like greenwashing.
Coming back to the main issue, usually, it’s the race to the center. But perhaps, this race towards the green is really a race to the center. Maybe — for those in the UK, correct me if I’m wrong — environmental issue is a centrist’s issue in the UK. If that is so, what a wonderful place the UK is right now.
Of course, the unfortunate part is that both the Labour and the Tories support the invasion of Iraq. Another thing is that, the Tories are Euroskeptics. I’m pro-EU simply because I’m for a more integrated ASEAN. I see a successful EU as a brownie point for those that are for a stronger ASEAN.
Still, whichever side wins next year, I’m happy to speculate that the UK would be green.
4 replies on “[899] Of Tories are green”
frankly, I forgot about them. I like them too.
I prefer the Liberal Democrats, to be honest. A bit leftist, perhaps, but I like their pro-Europe and federalist policies.
My greenie half counter-acts my libertarian part and vice versa. All that makes me a centrist but rather than (50+50)/2 = 50, I’m (0+100)/2 = 50. A different kind of centrist, I’d say. I’d call myself centrist-with-a-large-variance. =)
While he’s a bit to the left, there’s a lack of choice for the greens. This lack of choice makes me a fan of Blair. Perhaps he was the only prominent green-colored politician that I knew, until Cameron comes along.
Blair simply appeal to my green side. The Tories appeal to my libertarian part, hence, a dilemma. Given the stalemate, it comes to personality factor and I like Blair’s personality. I suppose, this is one example where personality could make a difference.
Now that there’s a blue-green, that wouldn’t be a problem anymore. I could throw about that personality factor out of the window and support a green-blue.
Now, centrism, well, it’s tough to forward a green or libertarian issues from the fridges. The only way to gain support is to go to the center and then raise up these issues. From there, we could bring the center to the errrrr, wherever necessarily =)
Hey, Bill Clinton showed it’s possible.
Yup, green consciousness is quite prominent in the UK. Less gas guzzling SUVs that the states! Hehe.
But surely a libertarian would not like Blair, or even centrism (therefore by extension Cameron?). Minimal state and economic freedom does not lie in the center, but at the right of the economic spectrum ;)
I’m center left, so it’s a different story ;)