Cornwall Council and 10:10

Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne writes in today's Independent about the need for the Treasury - perhaps more than any other central government department - to take ownership of the climate change agenda in the coming months and years. Within his article he makes a commitment for a future Tory government to require "government departments to cut their emissions by 10 per cent within 12 months of the election". Encouraging stuff, and not a million miles away from an amendment put before Cornwall Council in September asking the authority to sign up for the '10:10 Campaign', the aim of which is to commit organisations to a 10% reduction in carbon emissions by the end of 2010.

The Council's Independent Environment Cabinet Member, Julian German, was happy to agree to the amendment until the Leader, Tory Alec Robertson, intervened to put a stop to all this tree-hugging nonsense. 'We don't know what our carbon footprint is, we can't be bothered to find out and it might cost money' was the essence of his complaint. After moments earlier nodding in agreement with the amendment, the Tory backbench sheep quickly fell into line and voted this horrible left-wing conspiracy down, thereby achieving - well, not very much actually.

It does seem odd that George Osborne (hardly the most progressive face on the Tory front bench) seems able to make such a firm commitment for an institution as large as the national government when the Conservative-led administration in Cornwall still views any attempt to tackle climate change as a subversive plot to change (their) English way of life.

Would it be unfair of me to speculate that the Conservatives say one thing nationally in pursuit of votes, while on the ground the Tories who actually exercise power paint a quite different picture?