Mr Brown and the Green New Deal

So, having told St Barack what to do in US Technology this morning before coffee, its time to move on to tell Mr Brown how to save the UK economy before lunch.

Its simple, of course

The biggest medium term strategic issue facing the UK is energy independence - we use too much of it, and it nearly all comes from countries one wouldn't necessarily want to rely on in a tight spot.

In the short term, we have a demi-depression on hand, a large part falling in the sectors that used to service the comings and goings in the housing market. No demand, no movement, no cash flowing, no jobs for millions of small businesses. To solve this it would, in my humble opinion, be better to borrow money to build infrastructure rather than give tax cuts.

And what better infrastructure than that which reduces energy dependence.

Which is where the whole Green thing comes in. The problem the Green Lobby has is that the economics of Green are poor for the average citizen - the ROI of home insulation, solar heating, double glazing, water independence, energy saving light bulbs etc are typically measured in decades, which is - to use the technical term - cr*p.

Added to that, most of us know that Saving the Planet is not going to be done by a few Brits buying Piouss's and wearing woolly jumpers indoors on cold days - Americans sucking up 25% of the global energy consumption for 6% of the global population and and one Chinese power station going up every 3 days is where the problem is.

But what we can do is subsidise the sort of infrastructural upgrade work and products required to reduce domestic and business energy consumption, and borrow the money to do that rather than give it away in tax cuts. Creates work and jobs, reduces UK dependence on foreign energy despots (at a national level you see the full benefits across the board) and makes Messrs Brown and Co the grooviest Green Guys on the planet. Much better Green commitment than cycling to work while your chauffeur drives the briefcase. Whats not to like?

Actually, while I think of it - Mr Obama could do it too (and vice versa - the UK could do worse than copy the Koreans on a joined up Broadband policy)