Do you believe the world is set to combust in the next 20 years? Do you believe Greta Thunberg is the new messiah? Do you believe the Green Party is essentially made up of secret pro-climate change Tories in disguise? Well does Guido have some good news for you…

Over the weekend The Guardian gave digital column inches to Ed Gemmell, the man behind a new eco party pitching itself as the parliamentary wing of Extinction Rebellion. After having already covered the launch of this new ‘Climate Party’ a week ago – admittedly something that seemingly flew under almost everyone’s radar – Ed spells out his platform:

“The Climate party is about thriving, not just about surviving. Our aim is clear: the Conservative party should adopt a programme to decarbonise Britain by 2030; or, at the next general election, we will strive to replace a sufficient number of Conservative MPs in parliament in order to influence that agenda ourselves.”

Unfortunately for our ecosystem, the track record of Ed Gemmell suggests the party will neither thrive, nor survive. The CPS’ Robert Colvile has done some excellent digging and discovered Gemmell launched a fundraiser in 2019 to “PREVENT THE CLIMATE CRISIS”. Said fundraiser made £0 out of £770 from 0 supporters. Precisely what £770 was supposed to do in the fight against climate change remains a mystery.

He also raised £71 for ‘No Disposable Cup Day’…

Ed’s no newcomer to politics. Elected as a councillor in Buckinghamshire, he stood as an independent against Steve Baker – under his full name of Edmund – in 2019, accruing a whopping 191 votes, which compared to his previous fundraising attempt looks like a stunning result. He also claimed during one hustings that the last extinction level event occurred 66 years ago, rather than 66 million years ago…

Despite Ed’s radical and counterproductive policies like Net Zero by 2030 and “limit population growth”, his social media suggests his day-to-day activism is limited to celebrating the lack of disposable coffee cups at a hockey club, and asking McDonald’s to put his order in his own Tupperware – which given all of Maccies’ packaging is recyclable, seems unlikely to stop a climate catastrophe.

To avoid any perceptions of hypocrisy, Gemmell tried selling his gas-guzzling Vauxhall Opel Speedster three days before launching his eco party, on the pretence that “All my climate work is unpaid currently. I need to sell this asset to be able to continue full time.”

Presumably his desperation to flog it has nothing to do with the fact he’s spent 20 years driving a car that only gets 33mpg…