Guardian welcomes Lib Dem green investment bank triumph

I think you had better sit down before you read this.

The Guardian website carries an article that praises a Liberal Democrat achievement in government.

I am sorry. I did warn you. Would a glass of water help?

You will find that article on Desmond Carrington's Environment Blog. It begins:

Putting your money where your mouth is a good way to persuade others you are serious. And today, by setting up a serious green investment bank (GIB), the UK government has gone some way to persuading investors that they believe their own rhetoric on the urgent need to develop a green economy.

The coalition has sunk £3bn of taxpayers money into a bank that will run independently of government and will, eventually, be able to borrow as well as lend.

And it goes on:

On all the significant details of the GIB bar one or two, the government backed the green option, dispelling much of the GIB gloom that followed chancellor George Osborne's budget speech.

You still look a funny colour. Green, rather ironically. 

It will be independent and established in law. My Guardian colleague Fiona Harvey asked will it be able to borrow from the capital markets? Yes, said deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who made the GIB announcement. Furthermore, the £3bn seed money no longer depends on asset sales: the Treasury has underwritten the sum. The reaction from business, campaigners and engineers has been among the most positive I can recall for a green announcement: campaigners always ask for more than they think they will get, but there was little they didn't get here.

And Carrington makes observations on the politics of the announcement that will cheer Liberal Democrat readers:

Clegg's speech was full of rousing words and ambition, but he also made some political comments that are not in the official transcript.

Clegg said: "The LibDems have long been the greenest of the main three parties - the difference now is that it is not just a green party but a green party of government." That is clearly part of the stronger LibDem voice promised after their recent electoral drubbings and a reminder to LibDem voters that they are getting some return on their vote.

I have in the past suggested that it is possible to overestimate the extent to which we are seeing Liberal Democrat policies implemented by the Coalition government, but this strikes me as an unalloyed triumph.

And it is good to see the Guardian treating us justly for once.

Nurse, the screens!