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Bear with me on this; you’ll understand what I’m getting at very soon.

In Greek mythology, Cassandra was cursed.

Gifted with the power to see the future, she could predict the destruction of Troy with perfect clarity — but no one believed her.

Her warnings were dismissed, mocked, or ignored, even as the wooden horse rolled through the gates.

Are you with me so far?

Now think about this: In 2025, Ed Miliband finds himself in a strikingly similar position.

The new Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero has announced a bold, unprecedented plan to launch a “state of the climate” address to Parliament, to be delivered annually.

He calls it an “exercise in radical truth-telling” — an effort to speak plainly and urgently about the climate crisis already gripping the UK.

His aim is clear: to force political leaders to stop ducking the truth and start taking responsibility. But as with Cassandra, Miliband’s message risks being shouted down, twisted by ideological opponents, or drowned out entirely in the fog of manufactured doubt.

“Those who respond by saying: ‘There’s nothing to worry about, we don’t need to do anything’ — frankly it is the worst sort of betrayal of today’s and future generations,”

Miliband said.

“They need to be called out, and we are going to call them out.”

The climate crisis is already here — and worsening

The trigger for Miliband’s intervention is the Met Office-led “State of the UK Climate” report, released ahead of his speech.

The findings are stark: extreme weather is no longer a future threat — it’s the new normal.

The UK is already experiencing:

• More frequent, intense heatwaves – including record-breaking summers like 2022 and 2023

• Increased heavy rainfall – triggering repeated, damaging floods across the country

• Rising sea levels – threatening coastal communities and ecosystems

• Long-term ecological degradation, with nature in retreat and biodiversity under sustained pressure

The scientific consensus is overwhelming: global temperatures are rising due to human-caused emissions.

The UK, despite its temperate reputation, is far from immune.

In fact, the country is warming faster than the global average, with cascading effects on agriculture, infrastructure, health, and livelihoods.

A political battlefield — where truth is optional

In the face of this evidence, one might expect politicians to act fast to contain, if not reverse, the damage.

No such luck.

In fact, political resistance is growing – to the evidence of climate change.

Reform UK has pledged to scrap all net zero policies, withdraw subsidies from renewable energy, and invest in fossil fuels — casting climate action as an elite obsession, disconnected from working-class concerns.

The Conservative Party, under new leadership, has walked back its commitment to net zero by 2050 — a goal it once enshrined in law. Kemi Badenoch, now Tory leader, has called the target “catastrophic for the economy” and “impossible to achieve”.

These aren’t just rhetorical flourishes — they represent a fundamental shift in the Overton window of British climate politics.

What was once broad consensus is now under siege from populist scepticism and short-term economic anxiety.

“The extremists, the ideologues, are those who would deny the problem or deny the need to act,”

Miliband said.

“History will judge those people very, very harshly.”

And here lies the heart of the Cassandra Complex: Miliband speaks not just with conviction, but with the full weight of climate science behind him, yet he is consistently portrayed — especially by hostile media outlets — as an out-of-touch climate crusader, blind to economic “realities” and the political mood.

The public, caught in the middle, are left to choose: believe the seer, or the cynics?

Why the myth matters

The story of Cassandra resonates because it is timeless — and timely.

According to the myth, Cassandra was cursed by Apollo: she would always tell the truth, but no one would believe her.

Despite seeing clearly what was coming — the Trojan Horse, the sack of the city, the slaughter of her people — she was silenced by disbelief and ridicule.

And so Troy fell.

Today, climate scientists, campaigners, and a shrinking number of politicians like Miliband face a similar fate.

They warn of irreversible tipping points, unmanageable disasters, and a shrinking window to act — only to be labelled alarmists, enemies of growth, or eco-fanatics.

Like Cassandra, their tragedy lies not in being wrong, but in being ignored.

But there is still time to avoid the fall of our civilisation.

That’s what Miliband is banking on.

Can we break the cycle of denial?

Miliband’s plan to make the climate address an annual institution is a shrewd attempt to pierce the fog of obfuscation and force political accountability.

It echoes the Chancellor’s Budget statement, but instead of financial projections, it will lay bare the environmental realities Britain faces — and the cost of doing nothing.

The move also draws inspiration from climate “truth-telling” initiatives in countries like Sweden and New Zealand, where regular government reporting has increased public engagement and trust in green policies.

By putting climate facts on the record, in Parliament, with scientific backing, Miliband is trying to re-anchor the debate in reality — and force opposition parties to either engage with the data or be seen denying it.

Yet it’s a high-stakes gamble.

With Labour already scaling back its original £28 billion green investment plan, and Miliband recently forced to drop a “zonal pricing” plan for electricity, critics will question whether the rhetoric matches the resolve.

Still, in political terms, this may be Miliband’s most consequential contribution — a framework for embedding climate action in British democratic life, not as a passing priority, but as a permanent moral and policy imperative.

Hope and leadership — if we choose it

Despite his warnings, Miliband insists the speech will not be all doom and gloom.

He wants to highlight reasons for hope: growing international consensus on net zero, falling costs of renewables, new jobs in clean industries, and the UK’s potential to lead the world in green innovation.

But he’s also clear-eyed about the danger of complacency, especially from those who claim adaptation alone — higher flood defences, air conditioning, agricultural shifts — will suffice.

“That’s a complete betrayal,”

he said.

“Then you’re essentially running up the down escalator. The problem will get worse and worse. We keep trying to adapt. It will keep costing us more, and we won’t be able to keep up.”

There is still time to listen

The myth of Cassandra is not just a cautionary tale — it is a test.

What do we do when the warnings are clear, but inconvenient?

When the truth is spoken, but uncomfortable?

When the stakes are known, but the sacrifices are hard?

Ed Miliband is not perfect.

But he is, on the science, right.

The question is not whether he sees the danger — but whether anyone is finally ready to listen.

If not, well… We know how this story ends.

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