Party politics and the environmentConservative governments between 1979 and 1992, enthused by Thatcherite
deregulatory zeal, were certainly reluctant environmentalists. They were
willing to act when necessary, but prepared to ignore, delay and dilute
their responses whenever possible, although their record improved when
John Gummer was Secretary of State for the Environment (1992–7). After
entering opposition in 1997, the Conservative Party was consumed by self-
destructive internal divisions and an obsession with the issue of ‘Europe’,
and showed little interest in strengthening its environmental credentials
until the election of David Cameron as party leader in 2005. He immedi-
ately identified the environment as an issue he could use to try to re-brand
the Conservative Party and win back voters lost to the Labour and Liberal
Democrat parties. It remains to be seen how long this Tory romance with
the environment lasts, and whether Cameron is able to overcome business
opposition to the kind of robust environmental protection proposals that
will be necessary if he is to take on the Liberal Democrats on this issue.
Even when Britain was popularly dubbed the ‘Dirty Man of Europe’ in
the1990s for its poor pollution record, Labour showed a marked reluctance
toattack Conservative governments on the issue, and none of the Labour
leaders in opposition – Kinnock, Smith, Blair – showed any real interest
in environmental issues. Although Labour briefly struck an upbeat attitude
towardsthe environment in the immediate aftermath of its 1997 election
victory, it failed to sustain this new-found enthusiasm. Like its Conservative
predecessor, the Labour Government soon found itself ducking those envi-
ronmental protection measures that might threaten competitiveness, jobs
or its own popularity.
Why has ‘New Labour’ not embraced the environment? A critical moment
occurred in its first term of office. The fuel blockade in September 2000
involved a sudden upsurge of popular opposition to high fuel taxation,
which brought the country to a halt and saw Labour support in the polls
plummet. It provided a powerful lesson to Labour about the political dan-
gers of radical environmental initiatives. Thus although Blair has consis-
tently highlighted climate change as a major threat and taken a lead in
international climate change diplomacy, he has never made a concerted
effort to turn it into an issue of domestic party politics, probably because of
thepotential unpopularity of many measures, such as fuel taxes. But New
Labour’s resistance to environmentalism may go deeper than mere electoral
opportunism. According to Jacobs ( 1999 : 9), New Labour is ‘fundamentally
suspicious of environmentalism’, regarding it (not unreasonably) as a politi-
cal movement with its own ideology and organisations. Certainly some of the
radical ideas associated with green politics – anti-capitalism, anti-growth,
anti-consumerism – are regarded by New Labour as ‘anti-aspirational’. The
bottom line is that Labour strategists believe that the lifestyle compromises
implied by such ideas are irrelevant and unappealing to its target voters:
‘Middle England drives cars, enjoys shopping, wants to own more material
things and to go on more foreign holidays’ (Jacobs 1999 : 9). The contrast