Cameron's ideas won't fly (and neither will you)

The micturation contest over the environment between David Cameron and Gordon Brown is starting to produce some sensational ideas. Sensationally dumb, that is. The Government, through supposed up-and-comer David Miliband (am I the only one who thinks he looks scary??) has announced "binding" carbon reduction targets for the UK. There is to be a 5-yearly carbon "budget", with an overall goal of reducing carbon emissions 60% from today's levels by the year 2050. The BBC website solemly reports that future governments "could be taken to court" if the targets are breached.

Oh yes, so the Department of the Environment or what ever it is called in 2040 is sued by a group of citizens, found guilty of crimes against green-ness, and then what? The Minister is clapped in irons? The Government pays a fine to itself? In the absence of short-term targets, which Miliband has explicitly rejected, this plan looks like the enviro-equivalent of Gordon Brown's fiscal Golden Rule, which is met every year by the time-honoured expedient of moving the goalposts.

Then there's "Dave" Cameron's wacky scheme to restrict the growth of air travel. Don't get me wrong, I think this would be a good thing, if only to get Stelios and Michael O'Leary out of the newspapers. But "Dave" doesn't really have the courage to do anything really tough (tax aviation fuel, ban short-haul flights altogether), because he knows people like to travel (and O'Leary has some good lawyers). So his plan is a mix of inadequate price-driven measures (VAT on air travel? Big deal!) and cockamamie rationing: everyone is allowed one flight a year (presumably for the all-important break on the Costas), but after that you have to pay for some sort of pollution credits in order to take further flights.

The oddest criticism I've heard of this is that it's a non-Tory idea because it proposes a new layer of regulation and restriction. Hang on a minute! If anything like this ever happens, the only people flying regularly will be those rich enough to buy the credits. That sounds pretty Tory to me.