Crisp spring sunshine lit up the Palace of Westminster as a host of lobbyists wound their way, in twos and threes, towards the venue for Stop Climate Chaos' first proper event.
The Central Methodist Hall was vast and baroque and buzzing with activity when I arrived. Milling between lines of ecologists, it was not long before I saw faces I recognised (about 0.3 seconds, in fact, as Jo was on the front door). The social side of events like these is always a major part of the fun. In the Big Westminster Villlage, it's usually MPs, policy wonks and hacks who frequent the bars and mingle like smoke along the streets. Today, unusually, it would be a green schmooze.
And so we made our way into the Hall for complementary tea and biscuits and talk of the end of the world. I couldn't help but think the choice of venue had added a certain air of holiness to the proceedings, an air confirmed by the banners bedecking the inner sanctum and the positioning of the speakers' microphones directly underneath the organ. And lo, Ashok Sinha (for it was he) ascended said altar, and spake thus: 'Beleeeiiive in Climate Change, for it is reeeal and moves amongst the kingdoms of men today!'. Well, something like that.
Actually, if there was a contender for a Baptist-style orator of the afternoon, it has to go to dear George Marshall of COIN. Blending Buddhism and therapy, he exhorted his audience to draw strength from one another. We, the ecologists, those 'in-the-know' about the true nature of climate change, were 'the living', he said. The high-carbon lifestyles people once led with impunity were now an unreal dream, a dead way of life. Then he got the whole hall to hold hands. I started singing 'We Shall Overcome', though this didn't seem to be the idea. (Come to think of it, he may have been trying to start a seance, given what he'd just said.) But in fact this was group bonding. It worked. It buzzed. At the very least, it was a fine end to an afternoon's work. I won't bore you with the details of the lobbying - particularly as I only saw my local MP; our table watched those talking to David Cameron and Chris Huhne with envy!
But I will tell you this: We - that is, CCC - have now won. We've got full endorsement from Stop Climate Chaos, and a link to the million-plus supporters that entails. The best line was the closing line, from Ashok: 'Put this date in your diary: a mass mobilisation for November the 4th...'. It would be a little melodramatic to say the choirs then started singing. But it was a cheery way to end, and we all tramped off happily to the pub.
