Another amazing moment in British politics. The Conservatives are pressing for carbon emissions targets while Blair talks the talk but now that it is time to legislate, he's going soft on the issue and allowing the Tories to be more aggressive in cleaning up the environment. He's really itching to get on the right wing speaking circuit in America with this kind of sorry behavior.
But the Government is under intense pressure to go further and it faces the embarrassing prospect that its Bill could be beefed up during its passage through Parliament. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats will hold talks aimed at strengthening the measure in the House of Lords, where they can defeat Labour by joining forces.
If peers vote for annual cuts, Labour MPs who back the idea would then be more likely to rebel when the amended Bill returned to the Commons. A total of 412 MPs have signed a Commons motion calling for a 3 per cent cut in emissions each year, the highest number to sign such a petition in the last parliamentary session. The backers include 202 Labour MPs.
