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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/may/11/the-guardian-view-on-environmental-policy-goves-labour-lost
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| The Guardian view on environmental policy: Gove’s labour lost | The Guardian view on environmental policy: Gove’s labour lost |
| (6 months later) | |
| Let’s suppose that Michael Gove is entirely sincere in his desire to improve the countryside and to manage and mitigate, the effects of humans on their environment. He may be. He has announced a number of new and eye-catching measures, most recently an attack on disposable wipes, which will take effect some time in the radiant future he imagines after Brexit; and to a certain kind of romantic middle-aged Tory imagination, Brexit represents a return to the pastoral world of childhood when those white shapes bounding across the meadows were lambs, not plastic bags or wet wipes escaping on the wind. | Let’s suppose that Michael Gove is entirely sincere in his desire to improve the countryside and to manage and mitigate, the effects of humans on their environment. He may be. He has announced a number of new and eye-catching measures, most recently an attack on disposable wipes, which will take effect some time in the radiant future he imagines after Brexit; and to a certain kind of romantic middle-aged Tory imagination, Brexit represents a return to the pastoral world of childhood when those white shapes bounding across the meadows were lambs, not plastic bags or wet wipes escaping on the wind. |
| The real question is whether any Conservative can now deliver for the environment. Take the matter of wet wipes. To threaten them is an eye-catching stunt, if the threat was ever real: Defra now says that there is no question of a ban on them. That clarification is less likely to stick in the mind than the idea that at last something is being done to stop the growth of fatbergs and the proliferation of unsightly muck along our riverbanks as well as in our sewers. But it is not surprising that Defra has repudiated any idea of actually banning them. For one thing, such a ban would be immensely unpopular. | The real question is whether any Conservative can now deliver for the environment. Take the matter of wet wipes. To threaten them is an eye-catching stunt, if the threat was ever real: Defra now says that there is no question of a ban on them. That clarification is less likely to stick in the mind than the idea that at last something is being done to stop the growth of fatbergs and the proliferation of unsightly muck along our riverbanks as well as in our sewers. But it is not surprising that Defra has repudiated any idea of actually banning them. For one thing, such a ban would be immensely unpopular. |
| Even if many of the modern products are frivolous, and strictly speaking unnecessary, others are not frivolous at all. The growth of disposable cleaning cloths has been one of the real improvements that modern life has brought. From disposable nappies through to sanitary products and the wipes now used in hospitals, there is a real demand for these things from almost everyone who has had to use the alternatives. Besides, the industry points out that much of the problem arises not from products which are designed to be flushed but from those which are not but which get flushed anyway. It’s possible that a campaign of labelling alongside a PR campaign and carefully targeted tax rises on ecologically undesirable materials could shift behaviour and this would certainly be a policy worth trying. But it would require coordination and attention to detail. There would have to be carefully targeted regulation. There would need to be a willingness to stand up to consumer pressure. | Even if many of the modern products are frivolous, and strictly speaking unnecessary, others are not frivolous at all. The growth of disposable cleaning cloths has been one of the real improvements that modern life has brought. From disposable nappies through to sanitary products and the wipes now used in hospitals, there is a real demand for these things from almost everyone who has had to use the alternatives. Besides, the industry points out that much of the problem arises not from products which are designed to be flushed but from those which are not but which get flushed anyway. It’s possible that a campaign of labelling alongside a PR campaign and carefully targeted tax rises on ecologically undesirable materials could shift behaviour and this would certainly be a policy worth trying. But it would require coordination and attention to detail. There would have to be carefully targeted regulation. There would need to be a willingness to stand up to consumer pressure. |
| There would, in short, have to be an effective set of bureaucratic procedures of exactly the sort that the Brexiters imagine “freedom from Brussels” would deliver them from. The control we took back would have to be replaced by self-control, and where is the fun in that for a party that believes in deregulation on principle? This is a wider question that goes far beyond the question of wet wipes or even supermarket bags. The present EU regulations have been irksome both for industry and for government. Lawyers have been able to force government action over things like air pollution precisely because they have been appealing to EU standards enforceable in British law. | There would, in short, have to be an effective set of bureaucratic procedures of exactly the sort that the Brexiters imagine “freedom from Brussels” would deliver them from. The control we took back would have to be replaced by self-control, and where is the fun in that for a party that believes in deregulation on principle? This is a wider question that goes far beyond the question of wet wipes or even supermarket bags. The present EU regulations have been irksome both for industry and for government. Lawyers have been able to force government action over things like air pollution precisely because they have been appealing to EU standards enforceable in British law. |
| All this will change after 2020, and the regulatory body proposed by Defra is the first example of the kind of structure that the government wants to replace the EU mechanisms. As such it is hugely disappointing. It does not matter whether Mr Gove is sincere and has been defeated by the Treasury, or if he is simply hugging his own huskies in an attempt to detoxify his and his party’s brands. What matters is that the proposed body will not have regulatory teeth. It will advise, but it cannot compel. | All this will change after 2020, and the regulatory body proposed by Defra is the first example of the kind of structure that the government wants to replace the EU mechanisms. As such it is hugely disappointing. It does not matter whether Mr Gove is sincere and has been defeated by the Treasury, or if he is simply hugging his own huskies in an attempt to detoxify his and his party’s brands. What matters is that the proposed body will not have regulatory teeth. It will advise, but it cannot compel. |
| Anyone can announce grand schemes of environmental improvement and 25-year action plans. What matters is not whether the government now promises to eliminate plastic waste or even hybrid cars by 2040 but whether it can produce reasons for believing that these things will happen. Any sustained and effective programme of environmental protection will be expensive, financially and politically. A willingness, and still more a determination, to ensure that those prices are paid needs to be given institutional expression which is independent of the whims of the party faction in power. Nothing of that sort is visible in Mr Gove’s proposals and without such a guarantee his schemes are as eye-catching, as empty, and as ultimately worthless as a plastic bag drifting out at sea. | Anyone can announce grand schemes of environmental improvement and 25-year action plans. What matters is not whether the government now promises to eliminate plastic waste or even hybrid cars by 2040 but whether it can produce reasons for believing that these things will happen. Any sustained and effective programme of environmental protection will be expensive, financially and politically. A willingness, and still more a determination, to ensure that those prices are paid needs to be given institutional expression which is independent of the whims of the party faction in power. Nothing of that sort is visible in Mr Gove’s proposals and without such a guarantee his schemes are as eye-catching, as empty, and as ultimately worthless as a plastic bag drifting out at sea. |
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