Politicians should practice what they preach!

I’m delighted that the Ham&High has seen fit to draw attention to the gap between politicians’ words and their actions on climate change. It seems to me that this is a key issue facing all elected politicians. If we are to rebuild trust with our electorates, then we have to mean what we say and we have to follow through in our own lives. If not, we are hypocrites and the public will rightly see through our fine words.

I don’t see how we can ask the public to change their lifestyles – to drive less, to fly less, to eat less meat, to campaign for action on climate change – if politicians don’t walk the walk. I was delighted to see Camden’s councillors unanimously backing the 10:10 motion at full council earlier this month, and committing the Council to cut its emissions by 10% in 2010, which is what scientists say we need to do to avoid runaway climate change. But, and it’s a big but, I think it’s really important that the lifestyles of elected representatives reflect their public rhetoric.

For example, the Tory parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, Chris Philp, has a Range Rover (for climbing all those steep hills in Hampstead) and a Porsche (for speeding round our 20mph zones).

In the words of Bertrand Russell: “We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach.” My fear about the Conservative Party of David Cameron is, to paraphrase Otto von Bismarck: “When they say they agree with a thing in principle they mean they have not the slightest intention of carrying it out in practice.”