Vote Blue, Go Frack

The greenest government ever has narrowly averted defeat in a Commons vote which would have imposed a target to decarbonise electricity generation by 2030. Although many businesses approve of the idea, thanks no doubt to their outmoded expectations that governments should provide leadership rather than salesmanship, the Osborne economic miracle cannot be put on hold simply in order to accommodate sandal-wearing socialists like Tim Yeo. Some Conservatives, and even a few Deputy Conservatives, did vote for the measure; other potential rebels were bought off with "a promise by the coalition to allow the secretary of state to consider a 2030 decarbonisation target in 2016." Well, those potential rebels certainly did drive a hard bargain.