31/05/09
It was a premier league turnout for the launch of a new strategy by the alliance of groups that aims to move the environment up the political agenda.
Hilary Benn, secretary of state, Oliver Letwin, Conservative policy coordinator, and Simon Hughes, for the Lib Dems, faced tough questions, including what would be the first thing you would do on taking office after the next election. The answers were respectively: "address the crisis of sustainability... because a low-carbon society will inherit the earth"; "set out a path to the low-carbon economy"; and "make every home energy-efficient".
The debate was revealing. On the night most people probably thought the encumbent team had the most coherent approach. Mr Letwin was rather unspecific in many areas – perhaps the prerogative when you're ahead in the table. Mr Hughes relied a lot on being the first mainstream party to be explicitly green and this did ring true.
Mr Benn was substituted at the start of the second half by Number 10 policy adviser Michael Jacobs, who proceeded to outplay the real politicians with mercurial footwork and impressive command of the mid-field.
