Another Tory problem that Labour should have capitalised on

I have one more for James’ list of stories that would cause problems for the Tories if Labour were not entertaining us all with the longest death scene in political history. Last week a jury at Maidstone Crown Court decided that  the threat of global warming justified breaking the law – a story that made news worldwide. Specifically, six Greenpeace activists who vandalised a coal-fired power station and caused £35,000 of damage were acquitted on the grounds that the vandalism was done to prevent even greater damage to the environment. Random verdict from a strange jury, you might think. But speaking as an “expert witness” in the activists’ defence was one Zac Goldsmith, an environmental adviser to David Cameron and a Tory candidate in a very winnable seat. Now, I profoundly disagree with Goldsmith’s stance on the environment. But I’m amazed to see him defend criminal damage in the name of global warming, given his profile within the party and what I presumed were his political ambitions. Were Gordon Brown functional, he’d make some mischief with this. He even sees energy as one of his great dividing lines, he regularly (and falsely) says that the Tories are against nuclear power and he’s for it. As Christopher Booker says today, Britain relies on coal stations for a third of its energy. In the long run, it won’t help Cameron that Brown’s dartboard is now full of people wearing red rosettes. The less scrutiny falls on the Tories, the less ready they’ll be for office.