Damian Carrington

Cameron adds green insult to Osborne's low-carbon injury

The prime minister ignores the environmental issues he championed before being elected, following the chancellor's attack

George Osborne reveals his true colours: they aren't green
David Cameron with a husky called Troika on Svalbard, Norway
David Cameron, with the help of huskies in Svalbard, Norway, championed the environment before the election. Photograph:Reuters

So here's a green keyword count for the prime minister's speech today at the Conservative party conference: Green: 2. Climate: 0. Environment: 0. Carbon: 0.

Both mentions of "green" were in passing. One was part of a wide-ranging blast by David Cameron at Labour's failings. The other - "green engineering" - also came as part of a list of technologies a new economy would be built on.

It was quite simply an atrocious speech for the environment and for the hope that the government would use the economic crisis to invest in the green economy and put the UK on a sustainable long-term path. It's true, awful portent is only seen by taking into account the low carbon clanger dropped by Chancellor George Osborne on Monday. He didn't just ignore the opportunities of green growth, he actively spoke against them.

Despite the good work at the energy and climate change department - run by LibDem Chris Huhne - you do not become the "greenest government ever" by the two men running the nation indicating clearly that the UK's ambition is no longer to be a low carbon leader, merely mediocre at best. So the Guardian's green-o-meter has plunged, and we'll be reflecting more on this in coming days.

He had far more to say on planning. The furore over the proposed ripping up of 1000 pages of rules and replacing them with 52 is fomenting revolution in the shires. Rural Conservative MPs tell me it is the number one postbag issue.

But Cameron took a tougher line than the emollient tones we've heard from his ministers over the last few days and weeks.

"To those who just oppose everything we're doing, my message is this: take your arguments down to the job centre. We've got to get Britain back to work," he said. It's a return to the original justification for the planning revolution: the £3bn a year the government claims is lost because of sclerotic planning. Critics vehemently disagree: lack of money is the problem they say.

But, in keeping with promises of changes to the badly drafted proposals from his ministers, he said: "Of course we're open to constructive ideas about how to get this right." Whether he means "constructive" or "construction", we will have to wait and see.

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