Brown is out and about showing his credentials as P.M. in waiting. Already he has shown an ability to turn around New Labour’s fortunes. Unfortunately, as a Socialist Labour comrade put it so well, he is driving the same bus.
All the parties are competing to impress the big players, the multinational interests, and believe that by harnessing their benevolence they can turn things around. The evidence is they can’t. Big business is in Africa, in the Congo, clearing swathes of the second largest rain forest for African teak to sell to us for flooring and other home comforts. At the same time they will release huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. While the intentions to clear African countries of debt are well-meaning and laudable they do nothing to stop the causes exacerbating the situation. The continued plundering of minerals and other resources including timber and water, essential to the well-being of the people. We know that far from bringing benefits to the populations most of the wealth ends up as profit for the exploiting companies and in the hands of a small elite of selected corrupt politicians who add further misery to the masses.

The term “blood diamond” has reached the cinema. A report in the Washington Post reported the diamond trade in Canada. Clean diamonds? A comment I received from a Canadian left no doubt that “there is no such thing.” There land belonging to the Inuit is being plundered and despoiled.
No Mr Brown, without a fundamental shift away from shoring up unfettered capitalist enterprise and exploitation our futures are literally threatened. No amount of tinkering with the vehicle, painting it (red would be a good start!) won’t alter the fundamental problem. It goes on producing more and more carbon. A new fuel? Well hydrogen produces water, although the production of hydrogen uses traditional forms of energy. The design of the new bus requires some fundamental thinking, but needed it is for all of us.