Last week I traveled diagonally opposite David Cameron the day after the UK local council elections were held. I had to toss one of his four PR flunkies out from my reserved seat but that’s another story.
The relatively good Tory showing occupied their attention but during the animated conversations, Cameron made mention of what he termed ‘the rubbish vote’ and its impact on the results.
The manner in which the issue is debated in the UK avoids the real issues (IMO.) In the UK it’s all about the inconvenience of fewer collections. Where we live in Spain there is no house to house collection yet people manage to make a better fist of recycling than in the UK. The same is true in large parts of France.
The same evening, I watched An Inconvenient Truth. Regardless of where you stand on ecological issues and global warming in particular, Al Gore’s presentation is both compelling and disturbing. This is something we should all care about because it directly impacts innovation.
I am for instance deeply impressed with the efforts Tom Raftery is making to construct a carbon neutral data centre in Cork. The political and economic challenges are enormous yet if Tom’s team get it right then not only will they be doing something unique and valuable, they’ll be adding huge value to the local economy.
I wonder whether Cameron has a genuine position on this kind of thing? From the way the topic was discussed among his minions on our shared train journey, I somehow doubt it. The mess of newspapers his entourage left behind was truly appalling.
