Reporter’s Blog: Will He, Won’t He? Cameron’s green “remarks”

To speech, or not to speech – that’s been the question this week for David Cameron. He was hotly tipped to make a long-awaited green speech yesterday at the Clean […]

To speech, or not to speech – that’s been the question this week for David Cameron.

He was hotly tipped to make a long-awaited green speech yesterday at the Clean Energy Ministerial to quieten grumbles about his pledge to be the “greenest Government ever”.

But earlier this week the Twittersphere was rife with speculation our great leader would bail on the whole thing, after a series of PR-briefing blunders that Number 10 and DECC could easily have avoided.

In the end, our ruddy-cheeked PM made seven minutes worth of “remarks” – as the press fluff desperately called them – about the importance of renewables, as long as they are “financially sustainable”.

Why not “speech”? The word was notable for its glaring absence. In fact, the awkward wording of the press release made it look like “speech” had been hastily replaced.

Maybe, like DECC’s new sacrificial lamb to the Treasury altar (Ed Davey, of course), Cameron feels Osborne’s robotic eyes boring through his skull like a laserbeam whenever green energy is raised.

Maybe he thought, “If it isn’t technically a speech, George won’t be angry with me!”

So he made his lacklustre “remarks”. Whoop-de-doo, Mr C. Is the growing cleantech industry meant to be pleased that you feel “proud that Britain has played a leading role at the forefront on this green energy revolution”?

At any rate, the Will-He-Won’t-He blunder was another string to Cameron’s omnishambles’ bow – when it could so easily have been a green bull’s eye.

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