The Guardian, 4 April: David Cameron is set to end his long silence on green issues, with a major speech in front of the world’s key energy and climate figures, the Guardian has learned.
Financial Times, 23 April: David Cameron is no longer making a pro-environmental oration on Thursday during a gathering of 23 energy ministers from around the world.
If David Cameron was never planning to make a keynote speech on green issues then he can’t have cancelled it.
That is Downing Street’s reaction to news earlier this evening that the prime minister is no longer making a pro-environmental oration on Thursday during a gathering of 23 energy ministers from around the world.
The curious thing, however, is that the expectation among NGOs, Whitehall officials, special advisers – and yes, some Downing St personnel – was that Cameron was going to do so.
So what should we make of this? The steer from the centre is that while Cameron may have mulled a setpiece speech it was only ever considered. And ultimately he decided it was more useful to do a roundtable with executives and politicians – and issue a press release on the side – rather than a grandstanding speech. This wouldn’t require the work of five speechwriters, was how one aide put it. (Although you might argue, that’s what speechwriters are for).
Anyway, Cameron has managed to dodge the “cancellation” headlines as he is still kind of going ahead. But for the renewables industry the confusion is not being taken as a major sign of encouragement.
