Subscribe to this blog's feedEnvironment minister Hilary Benn was out and about this week admiring John Lewis’s energy-efficient flagship store in central London before heading to Kew Gardens to reveal the government’s latest thinking on its upcoming Climate Change Bill.
The secretary of state had quite a bit to say about energy savings in his keynote address, so Disconnector’s representative at the do could only applaud the attention to detail of the facilities management team at the venue.
They scurried round the building to check the radiators had been turned off. Although it was the end of October, it was a particularly warm day in west London on Monday.
Benn’s progress around the capital was dogged by protesters dressed as polar bears to remind him and us of the threat posed by melting ice caps. Benn appeared unfazed by these antics.
But it could have been messier. The great man (Disconnector, not Benn) is well aware that climate change activists are turning up the heat on the issue.
Earlier this month, for instance, a group of 15 or so eco-protesters turned up at a biofuels conference and exhibition at Newark where they locked themselves to the podium and set off alarms.
This happened when Oliver Mace, chief executive of BP Fuels, the chief sponsor of the event, was giving his keynote speech. Mace was cream-pied. The hall was emptied and the talks cancelled.
Oops.
