Prospect: Why is it, do you think, that your party has allowed people to think that conservation and Conservatism are two things that are opposed to each other?
Michael Gove: They should be closely aligned. But all political parties are coalitions, and all governments have different pressures, and at times we—like other parties— have allowed the necessary imperative for economic growth to appear to be more important than, or in conflict with, the duty of stewardship and environmental enhancement.
But history teaches us that successful political movements hold things in balance; that obviously has to include the balance between generating growth and protecting the environment where there is a real tension between these things. Increasingly, however, by pursuing the right policy, we can often [transcend the need] to trade ecology off against prosperity, and instead use environmental protection in order to bolster growth.