Before I turn off David Dimbleby (and his tie) and go to bed, and momentarily lie in peace before the reality of our next government unravels, I thought I would post this video of an event I attended to prior to our last general election, back in March 2015.  The British Ecological Society gathered a pomp of politicians in one room to debate on the topic of People, Politics and the Planet.

It was an interested few hours, obviously.  Planet did feature, but further down the list to where I, and my fellow ecologist friends in the audience would have liked.  Since then though, people have become a much more significant part of UK politics.  And if we don’t respect people, how can we expect them to respect the environment?  At least until our own back yards collapse that is (if we’re lucky enough to have a back yard).  But that’s another blog/dinner party discussion.

I was fortunate enough to be involved in the debate: at 50 mins in Part 2, the great Jonathan Dimbleby (what brothers, eh!) invited me to ask the following question:

“If you were all 20 again, and knew that you would be in politics for 40 years without the pressure of being elected out, what bold decision would you make that would actually make a sustainable contribution to the future of the planet?”

I wasn’t hugely inspired by the responses.  But I enjoyed being thought of as a millenial!

Part 1 can be viewed here.  Overall, it was a very interesting discussion that gave us plenty of fodder to last a couple of post-event pints.  Unfortunately I don’t think there was time to organise a similar debate before today’s election.  Or possibly any political interest?  But the issues are still there, and even more so.  Can we continue to push for ‘growth’?  What are the alternatives?  When will environment feature more centrally in manifesto chat (except, of course, amongst the great Greens)?  Will it just be the United(?) States that pulls out of the Paris Agreement?

Hmmm….. Bed time for bozoes.