Darling's "green" budget

The Guardian outlines how Alistair Darling will present the "greenest" budget yet from this government here. Unsurprisingly, that doesn't add up to much as we already know how much hot air comes out of this government on green issues. This extract made me chuckle: "The new policy will simply force oil companies to double to 5% the share of biofuels in petrol and diesel. In future the system will be modified to ensure that only sustainable biofuels - which do not, for example, destroy rainforests - are used." Note the use of the words "in future" - in other words, right now, it doesn't matter where these biofuels come from, and I'll warrant they'll still be using "in future" in relation to "sustainable biofuels" 5-10 years down the line too.

Unlike other people, though, I don't want Alistair Darling to quit as Chancellor. He inherited a poisoned chalice from Gordon Brown - the problems we now face are a result of Brown's policies, not Darling's (particularly when it was Brown's intervention blocking an earlier deal that ultimately forced Darling to eventually nationalise Northern Rock). But once again, people - supposedly educated and in the know - are too thick to realise this. I've got a real bee in my bonnet this morning over how "thick" we all are, and that goes for the chattering classes as well as everyone else.