‘Caught between Neo-Luddites’: Conservatives must champion the environment, says former cabinet minister

Speaking at the Conservative Environment Network’s annual Sam Barker Memorial Lecture later today, Sir James Cleverly, who was home secretary between November 2023 and July 2024, and foreign secretary between September 2022 and November 2023, will call on the Conservative Party to champion the environment. 

“We are caught between two tribes of Neo-Luddites: The negative right. Claiming that the way things are now is just fine, [that] concerns about emissions, habitat loss, and falling yields are scaremongering. Their motto: All change, even for the better, is a bad idea. 

“And the negative left, suspicious of technology. Believing things were better before the car, the internal combustion engine, before the steam engine, before the wheel.

“The ‘let’s not move forward’ tribe is in a bidding war with the ‘let’s move backwards’ tribe. They’re both wrong”, Cleverley is set to say. 

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