Shortly before the recent UK election the BBC's children's programme "Newsround" invited its young viewers around the country to email them to let them know what they would do "If U were PM" ie. if they were Prime Minister....

From the response it's clear that children are far more uncompromisingly "switched on" to electric vehicles, renewable energy - and environmental issues generally - than those journalists, programme-makers and politicians - those..er...mature grown-ups - charged with shaping their futures and protecting their planet....Here are a few of the children's "childish" (unedited) comments:

1) James, 9, from Eckington:

'Make more electric cars & cheaper. Make petrol cars very expensive. Over 20% higher than now. Cut down the amount of pollution from factories'

2) Thomas, 12, from Lewes:

'If I woz PM I would ban all cars unless they ran on electric power. All the electric power would be harnessed from the wind in Scotland and the windy coasts in the British Isles. This is because the greedy cardriving adults are spoiling OUR future!'

3) Lewis, 13, from Innerleithen:

'I would encourage ecological projects such as building green homes and would try to cut down the amount of fossil fuels released into the atmosphere by encouraging electrical forms of transport....'

Oh - the naive little darlings....the future of the planet's one thing - but what future will daddy's pension portfolio have 20 years from now without strong oil stocks, heh? And don't they realise that daddy needs ever more powerful pistons as he approaches ever more impotent middle-age? Wise up kids!

BBC Newsround "If U were PM" webpage.

Well- maybe now the BBC might also like to ask their viewers - young and old - what they would do:

"If U woz/were BBC Director General" - some might suggest for instance that it's high time the BBC Homepage itself included the word "Environment" as a subject category along with:

Education
Entertainment
(Environment - here please!!)
Food
Gardening
Health:

- to some of us the fact that it's still not listed speaks volumes about the Beeb's, Blair's, Middle England's...fundamental dread of the "E" word....(the BBC's TV Ceefax listings are even worse - the full A-Z, 50-plus entry index also omits the word "Environment" completely....)

See also: BBC Radio 4 report "The Struggle for Supremacy" (June 2001) - the first broadcast on British domestic TV (or radio), in at least 5 years, devoted entirely to reporting - and reporting positively - on alternatives to the Internal Combustion Engine. Could the 'ICE' be melting - even at the Beeb?