Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

CLIMATE CHANGE
In a month or two, once we have stopped examining the Lisbon Treaty bill in minute detail, the Commons will be debating the Climate Change bill. I hope to play a full part in this and serve on the standing committee that will pour over every line.

Nobody can now doubt that our climate is changing: ice caps melting, oceans warming up, more violent weather patterns, flooding and so on. The scientific evidence for all this is compelling and so is the evidence of our own eyes. But the issue is: are we causing it, or is it just a natural, cyclical, set of events not caused by us?

My view is a simple one. I cannot comprehensively prove that mankind alone is causing this, because it has happened before in the planet's history. But it is obvious to me since the time that we started burning coal and petrol to fuel factories and cars that the increasing amounts of carbon we are pumping out into the earth's atmosphere is bound to be contributing to global warming. If so, we must now do all we can to correct things, or our grandchildren risk living in the midst of utter devastation.

The government's climate change bill will introduce a target by which we have to reduce this country's carbon emissions by up to 60% by the year 2050. That seems like a long way off, but a child born this year will only be 43 by then. (I might even be hanging on, shaking my walking stick at my great-grandchildren at a sprightly 95! OK, that's less likely.)

The bill will also create a powerful new commission whose job it will be to monitor progress and advise government on how to hit its targets. All 3 parties support this bill. The EU is imposing tough carbon reduction targets on every member state. For once I am glad that the EU is legislating on this, because there is not much point in us enduring the pain in the UK if every other country carries on belting out the greenhouse gasses.

We will all have to make changes. I predict that successive governments will get tougher and tougher on this. So we may as well get our own houses in order before the man with the big stick shows up at the door. Soon the most asked question might become: what are you doing to reduce your carbon footprint?

posted by Nigel on Friday, January 25, 2008

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

EUROPEAN REFERENDUM

What do you do when you join a club, are not very happy about its direction or some of its rules, but it is the best club in town and you don't fancy being out there on your own? Isn't that precisely where we are with the European Union? (Now that I have mentioned the E word, 70% of you have stopped reading while a trenchant minority have started swivelling your eyes.)

We are between a rock and a hard place. We joined the Common Market 35 years ago and really only wanted the trade advantages, not full blown integration. Most of us have never really agreed with the focus on ever closer union or some of the institution's barking mad rules. But other members of the club have successfully pushed an integrationist agenda which has taken us to a degree of shared decision making that would have horrified the British people in 1975.Of course, our membership of the club has brought many benefits; mainly economic, but also travel freedoms, opportunities as well as underpinning peace and stability in western Europe. So we like being in the club, (apart from a determined handful) even though the committee keeps making decisions that frustrate us!

Starting shortly, the House of Commons will be debating the new Treaty for 20 days. As we cannot amend the treaty, but only accept or reject it, the logic behind allocating so much time to debate it is beyond me, but others have so decided. There is only one vote during this long process that really matters and that is whether or not the people of this country get a say on ratifying this treaty.

I am not the world's greatest believer in referendums, but I do feel strongly that we should have one on this treaty. Every political party promised that the European Constitution would go to the people for formal approval in the run up to the last election. That Constitutional Treaty was stopped dead in its tracks by a vote of the French people, but most commentators privately agree that the revised treaty is substantially the same text as the one that was thrown out.

As this treaty does give more power to European institutions it would seem a good time to test British public opinion. So watch out for a close vote coming up soon in both the Commons and the Lords. It could give you the final say.

posted by Nigel on Friday, January 18, 2008

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

MP's PAY
Here we go again. I hope you all had a very good Christmas and New Year break and feel refreshed and ready for all that 2008 will throw at us. No predictions, except this: I know that I will make many mistakes this year. How? Because the only way to avoid making mistakes is to avoid making decisions.

One of the first tissues on which the wisdom of Solomon is required is MP’s pay. Not a great first article for the New Year you may think, but as the story of “snouts in trough politicians” is already running I thought I’d grasp the nettle.

First of all, I think it plain wrong that we should have a vote on our own pay and this must stop. Some years ago our pay was linked to a certain grade in the civil service, but one year the automatic upgrade suggested such a large uplift that the government felt inclined to oppose it. So the link was broken, big mistake.

Now we have an independent body that makes recommendations every three years or so. It always seems to recommend hefty increases which the government of the day tries to oppose, so it still comes back to the House to decide.

We need a major exercise, with full consultation, to decide where your elected representatives should rank in the public sector pecking order. There are few comparable jobs, so this has a measure of creativity about it. In my opinion, not many would complain if we were grouped in the same pool as secondary school head-teachers, General Practitioners and senior local government executives. After all, we are the only law-makers in the country and carry a measure of responsibility. So why not decide where we fit into the hierarchy and then peg us there with inflation only increases thereafter. That way we don’t get to vote on our own pay.

The trouble with my analysis is that secondary heads get paid about £90,000 these days, GPs over £100,000 and top local government people well over £100,000. MPs get £60,000 – still a lot of money for most people – but imagine the outcry if we suddenly jumped to the level of my suggested comparators. It can’t be done.

So we are stuck with a system that involves the indignity of us voting on our own pay. There has to be a better way than this. Anybody out there got any wisdom? Keep it clean!

mail@garystreeter.co.uk

posted by Nigel on Friday, January 11, 2008