by David McVey

IN APRIL 2019, in a speech to the SNP Conference, the First Minister addressed a spate of strikes and protests by school pupils and other young people.

‘They want governments around the world to declare a climate emergency,’ she said of the protestors. ‘They say that’s what the science tells us. And they are right.’

So far so good. The First Minister rightly earned plaudits from campaigners for making such a bold statement.

Grumbling from Tories and embittered Scottish Labour figures only emphasised how right she was.

Nearly two years on, another global emergency has intervened, one that at least on the surface is more immediate and more tangible. The environment has gone down the priority list as we’ve demanded more single-use plastic PPE and urged people to go by car rather than public transport to reduce the risk of transmission.

Oddly, while catastrophically removing his country from the EU and mismanaging its response to the pandemic, the buffoonish Prime Minister of the ailing United Kingdom has kept one eye on the environmental vote, making a series of Green Economy pledges. In November 2020 he announced a ten-point plan that would, he assured, bring 250,000 (count ‘em) green jobs. Of course, few believe any promises Mr De Pfeffel Johnson makes, especially when they involve numbers with lots of nothings at the end. In any case, the Treasury had to be dragged kicking and screaming to agree provisional funding for his latest wheeze and few expect that much will ever happen.