The Commons vote on 42-day detention will without doubt make the headlines this week - but it is tactically overshadowing another bill that will have a far greater impact on both our liberty and bank balances. The UK Climate Change Bill is going through its second reading in the Commons and will see government propose 80 per cent cuts in Britain’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Over at CCNet, Julian Morris of the International Policy Network, has put together a concise analysis of the Climate Change Bill. His conclusion?
The Climate Change Bill as it currently stands presumes that knowledge concerning the most cost effective means of reducing carbon emissions can be acquired and utilised effectively by planners in central government. This is the same fatal conceit that underpinned the fantasy of socialist central planning. The consequences cannot be but ill for the people of the UK and of the world.
Indeed, from the goal of avoiding global mean temperatures rising more than 2C above pre-industrial levels, to the choice of the year 2050 and 80 per cent reduction - these targets are all completely arbitrary. Once again, the government has decided that it knows best - without having even looked at the economics of different carbon reduction strategies.