Politics of the Environment

The Article "The Politics of the Environment: Greener than thou," published February 11th in the economist, discusses environmental policy in England and, more importantly, the effect the recession and the upcoming election will have on it. It predicts a fairly grim future for "green" issues. The recession has convinced many voters that, right now, environmental policy is a luxury the country cannot afford. A recent poll in the UK showed that the number of voters who considered "pollution a major concern" has dropped from 19% to 8% since 2007. Furthermore, a number of recent scandals (such as evidence that climate scientists were tampering with data) and the relatively cold winter we've had this year has significantly reduced the percentage of British citizens who are certain that climate change is real.

The predicted conservative victory in the upcoming election is another factor that will have a major effect on the future of environmental policy in the country. The conservatives are generally less supportive of the green agenda. In particular, they care less about reducing emissions, and more about preserving the natural beauty of the countryside by preventing it from being filled with wind generators and nuclear power plants. As the article states, the difference is mostly "one of emphasis," with the conservative emphasis being on "the small and local" rather than on sweeping legislation.

This article is a clear example of public policy, and the effects the economic state and a change of government can have on it. Environmental policy can have broad implications in a country, and particularly affects the economy. It seems only natural that a downturn of the economy would result in politicians generally backing away from the green agenda.

Image courtesy of David Simonds and the Economist.

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"torture" secrets revealed

Under Duress

In a recent Economist article there was a discussion on whether or not the United Kingdoms foreign and home intelligence offices were using terror in order to extract information. The conclusion was no they did not use torture but they were privy to others, namely Americans using "at the very least cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment". But the over all impact of this was the release of these documents to the British public. By a court order it forced the hand of M16 to release documents containing torture information on Binyam Mohamed, a British born Ethiopian. This effects the strength of the judiciary the public policy, and the way the foreign culture views Briton as another country using torture.

Brown praises Northern Ireland decomissioning

In the BBC article, "PM praises Northern Ireland decomissioning moves", on February 7th Gordon Brown praised the "decomissioning", or removal of weapons, that occured through three of Northern Ireland's main parties. The decomissioning was started by a piece of legislation that was proposed in the Northern Ireland Genereal Assembly. The prime minister said that the act was "a central part of the process of moving NI from violence to peace". This strongly elevates the legitamacy of the government because now the people of Northern Ireland know that their parties are not taking part in any shady activity. It also helps with the transparency and shows that Gordon Brown can have a significant voice in Northern Ireland.

Electoral Reform in the UK

According to Bagehot's editorial "1997 Revisited" published February 4th in the Economist, PM Gordon Brown is suprising the UK by beginning a push for electoral reform. Britain has, for a very long time, operated under the same electoral system as the US. "First-Past-the-Post" gives the win to whichever MP gets the most votes, and doesn't require a majority. The new voting system Brown is supporting (Alternative Voting, or AV) is the system used in Australia. In this method, people rank candidates rather than choosing one to vote for. This system ensures that the winning politician has more than 50% of the total vote.

One of the major features of AV, according to Bagehot, is that it ends up electing inoffensive candidates. Anyone who is too partisan or too controversial has virtually no chance of winning. There are a number of theories as to why Brown is supporting electoral reform right now. The most obvious is that he fears he will lose the upcoming election, and hopes a change in the rules of the game might help him. Brown might also be trying to woo the Liberals, with whom he might hope to form a coalition following the next election. The Liberal Democrats have wanted electoral reform for years. This is not the kind of system that will particularly benefit, them, however. A final, far more simple explanation is that Brown wants an AV electoral system because the conservatives don't want it. As the article states, "Sometimes the line matters more than the position it divides," and Brown is introducing this not as a debate over AV vs. FPTP but as "reform vs. the status quo."

It is the author's opinion that, regardless of why Brown wants reform, it will probably never happen. Even if a bill is pushed through the House of Commons, there is a good chance the House of Lords will delay it past the election, which Brown is slated to lose.

This article demonstrates the concept of political institutions. Changing from a FPTP system to an AV system would fundamentally change the way politicians are elected in the UK. It is also an interesting example of the UK's gradualism, and ability to reform its own institutions.

Illustration by Steve o'Brien, courtesy of the Economist

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Britain's "broken society"

Through a glass darkly

In a recent Economist article, Britain's broken society, it talks of Britons crime rates past and present and what politicians can do, plan to do, and have done. Most recently Conservative Party leader David Cameron said that Briton had a broken society siting recent brutal crimes by children to children. He goes on to say that the UK is dealing with a "Social Recession". Apparently the people of Briton agree with 71 percent of people saying the UK was becoming worse, this was before the recession. And fear of Crime has become the biggest problem for voters. Ironically the statistics don't back the people up, in fact criminologist are saying that over the past fifteen years crime has fallen in all walks of crime. Domestic violence has been the greatest effected with a 70 percent drop since 1981, it is believed to be part of Britons formerly good economy, taking men away from the home and allowing women to leave if they need to. But crime has also dropped in non-violent crimes, although criminologist account for increase in housing security in recent years than governmental policies. Oddly the day before Mr. Cameron's announcement, it was reported that homicides was at a 19-year low. Child murder has gone down as well, this is attributed to the social services and police working hand in hand. what many believe is the reason behind Mr. Cameron's promulgation is the more and more non-conservative themes brewing in England, in five years more babies are expected to be born to single mothers than married families, and living alone has "more than trebled". This shows the transparency of Britons political statistics, the involvement of voters and the opinions of the politicians coming up for elections soon. It also has an effect on the stability of society in Great Briton and its changing electorate.

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Tories Plan to Shift School Power

In the BBC News broadcast, Tories Plan To Shift School Power, Paola Buonadonna explains that the Conservatives, in their new policy on development will allow local authorities to decide how much development they'll allow, but with one exception-the building of schools. At the moment, local authorities can block the building of schools, but Conservatives plan on stripping the councils of this power in that planning area. Schools will be treated like other major infrastructure projects, like airports and power plants. Ironically this will anger the local authorities the Conservatives have been trying to reach out to.

This policy reflects the issues found in a unitary system of government, where the legitimacy of the local and regional government is challenged by the federal authorities. Instead of looking to the town hall, people will be looking to Whitehall to determine where their schools will be.

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(2/7/2010)
Thank you Jeff Monroe for the image.

Ministers Told of Iraq Kit Risk

According to the article "Ministers told of Iraq kit risk - armed forces chief," published Monday February 1st on BBC news, ministers were warned before the UK sent troops to Iraq that the military would not have time to prepare for the war. Equipment shortages, especially a lack of body armor, were blamed for the deaths of many British soldiers in the Iraq war. The head of the armed forces, Sir. Jock Stirrup, is now arguing that, if the military had been given more time to prepare, British lives could have been saved. He also says that there was a communications problem between London and the forces on the ground, and that London wasn't fully informed of the severity of equipment shortages once the war began.

This article relates to our theme of public policy. The Iraq war was an extremely unpopular piece of public policy that destroyed Tony Blair's popularity. In this article, the head of armed forces is arguing that, had the government given the military more time to prepare, the war might not resulted in so many deaths, and thus might not have been so unpopular. This is also important to the upcoming election. The Iraq war is connected to the Labour party. If this inquiry convinces people that Blair's administration was responsible for deaths in Iraq through poor public policy, it could hurt the party.

Photo credit to St. John's College Democrats

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