The other day I blogged
Jackie Ashley's piece in the Guardian on Heathrow expansion. She wrote this about Labour's inexplicable enthusiasm:
The most cynical explanation, which I have heard buzzing around in the past few days, is simply that ministers who know they have lost the next election are cosying up to the business interests that may help them out in the private sector afterwards.
Yesterday,
jossc wrote something very similar on the Greenpeace blog:
The cynical answer is that Labour know they've already lost the next election and are cosying up to industries that will employ them once they're out of government...
Perhaps Jackie has been talking to Joss, who is presumably
Joss Garman. On the New Statesman today, Garman approvingly
quotes Ashley:
It's surprising that it's taken this long for any serious Labour dissent over this to become apparent, especially when, to quote Jackie Ashley, "a swath of Labour ministers and MPs can expect to lose their seats if Heathrow's third runway is given the go-ahead."
All very circular.
1 comment:
Dear Chris,
Actually your presumption is wrong - there are in fact two Josses at Greenpeace - climate campaigner Joss Garman, and web editor Joss Cope (ie me). Confusingly perhaps, we both work on aspects of the anti-new coal campaign.
Easy mistake to make, but it does leave me wondering what your point is exactly? Obviously I referenced Jackie Ashley's point in my blog (and included a link to her excellent article), but I've never met or spoken to her. And the point about ex-government officials seeking employment at companies they used to regulate is hardly earth-shattering news. If you'd included the next line from my blog your readers would have seen the line "as the Tories did with armaments and banking at the end of the Major years". Which was meant to be a reminder that this sort of thing is a long-standing problem of the 'who guards the guards' variety, which doesn't mean it shouldn't be exposed wherever it rears its ugly head.
While I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, the real conspiracy which needs investigating here is not between journalists and Greenpeace but between the politicians and the industries they are supposed to regulate, I would suggest.
all the best,
Joss Cope
Web editor, Greenpeace UK
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