Bislang hatte ich noch den Eindruck, die britischen Konservativen hätten sich der Umweltpolitik in letzter Zeit nur deshalb angenommen, um sich ein neues Image zu geben. Jetzt wollen sie anscheinend wirklich Ernst machen, wie der Sunday Telegraph berichtet:
Harsh new taxes on air travel, including a strict personal flight “allowance”, will be unveiled by the Conservatives tomorrow as part of a plan that would penalise business travellers, holidaymakers and the tourist industry. The proposals, to be disclosed by George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, include levying VAT or fuel duty on domestic flights for the first time as part of a radical plan to tackle global warming. The Conservatives will also suggest - most controversially of all - rationing individuals to as little as a single short-haul flight each year; any further journeys would attract progressively higher taxes, a leaked document entitled Greener Skies suggests.
Rationierung von Flügen - ein kurzer Flug pro Jahr, alles andere ist verwerflicher Luxus? Und das von einer angeblich konservativen Partei? Warum schlagen sie nicht gleich vor, British Airways in Interflug umzubenennen?
Aber es kommt noch besser: Am Donnerstag kommt Al Gore zu Besuch und wird dem konservativen Schattenkabinett erklären, wie man mit scheinheiliger Umweltpropaganda einen Oscar gewinnt. Wer kommt wohl als nächstes? Hillary Clinton? Michael Moore? Ralph Nader?
Der Daily Telegraph-Kommentator findet zu all dem die passenden Worte:
Mr Cameron deserves more than the benefit of the doubt for his attempts to widen the appeal of his party and change perceptions of its motives. But he is running risks with these proposals: Labour may portray him as wanting to increase taxes on hard-working people by penalising those who spend their money on holidays for their families. Furthermore, there are now signs that the so-called “unanimous consensus” on climate change is disintegrating. Mr Cameron may be about to learn that the danger inherent in following political fashions is that they can change very quickly.
A less alarmist and more thoughtful consideration of the nature of the risks we face and of the most appropriate action to deal with them would be a better way forward.
It is not as if the additional taxes on air travel will actually “save the planet” anyway: the contribution of the UK’s air traffic to the total of CO2 emitted globally every year is so small as to be almost insignificant. This is gesture politics - and it is a gesture which will hurt the vast swathe of hard-working lower-income groups who aspire to something more. Those are precisely the groups that the Tories lost to Labour in 1997, and which they have to win back if they are to regain power. ...
Mr Cameron rightly wants to make Gordon Brown look like yesterday’s man. He will do so - but only if he is brave enough to follow logic and evidence rather than fad and fashion.
In Großbritannien hat man also die Wahl zwischen einer offenbar korrupten Labour-Partei, konservativen Ökofundamentalisten und liberaldemokratischen Populisten. Ich hätte nie gedacht, dass ich mich nach der deutschen Parteienlandschaft zurücksehnen würde, aber langsam bin ich soweit. Noch mehr von solchen Nachrichten wie an diesem Wochenende, und ich bitte in Berlin um Asyl.
