David Cameron has named Greg Clark as the shadow minister for "Energy and Climate Change" ... Clark was the MP behind the Private Members Bill to stop gardens being defined as brownfield land. He is also a former director of policy (2001-2005) for the Conservatives. I don't remember any ideas about feed-in tariffs and microgeneration emerging at that time. His assistants are Greg Barker (shadow minister for climate change) and Charles Hendry (shadow minister for energy).
Other items:
- If you're a roofer, you may want to check out Solarcentury's booth at Interbuild (the NEC, 26th to 30th October).
- UK consumers use food at a rate that represents six times more land and sea than is available to us.
- Sure, ID cars are going to be totally secure.
- Give coal the boot!
Finally, Help the Aged and FoE are taking the government to court over their fuel poverty policies.
07 October 2008
Coventry Airport's Passenger Terminal
Coventry Airport has lost its High Court Appeal for expanding its passenger terminal. Hooray!
The idea that the airport's expansion was "vital for the economic health and prestige" of Coventry is wrong. All of our investments in carbon-neutral housing, in the utopian visions in yesterday's Coventry Telegraph (self-driving cars, wind turbines on lampposts), will be swamped by the impact of an expansion of aviation.
Since aviation fuel is not taxed, cheap flights have become the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe. Each adult in the UK averages 603 kg of carbon emissions from aviation per year. The US, in comparison, is only 275 kg per adult per year.
If we want "economic health" in Coventry in the future, it's needs to be a low-carbon kind of health.
The idea that the airport's expansion was "vital for the economic health and prestige" of Coventry is wrong. All of our investments in carbon-neutral housing, in the utopian visions in yesterday's Coventry Telegraph (self-driving cars, wind turbines on lampposts), will be swamped by the impact of an expansion of aviation.
Since aviation fuel is not taxed, cheap flights have become the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide emissions in Europe. Each adult in the UK averages 603 kg of carbon emissions from aviation per year. The US, in comparison, is only 275 kg per adult per year.
If we want "economic health" in Coventry in the future, it's needs to be a low-carbon kind of health.
06 October 2008
The 2nd McCain-Obama Debate
Obama and young voters. The Roots get on board. Obama starts running ads against the NRA. Henry Paulson was an aide to John Erlichman, and it turns out that McCain is friendly with G Gordon Liddy. It increasingly looks like McCain simply won't have the "ground game."
Mammal Species Extinction
At least 25% of the world's mammal species are at risk of extinction. I like geothermal heating and all that, but shouldn't this be leading Channel 4 News, not Icelandic banks?
Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's species programme: "The financial crisis is nothing compared with the environmental crisis ... It's going to affect a few people, whereas the biodiversity crisis is going to affect the entire world. So there is a risk that because of the financial crisis, people are going to say 'yeah, the environment is not that urgent'; it is really urgent."
Jean-Christophe Vie, deputy head of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's species programme: "The financial crisis is nothing compared with the environmental crisis ... It's going to affect a few people, whereas the biodiversity crisis is going to affect the entire world. So there is a risk that because of the financial crisis, people are going to say 'yeah, the environment is not that urgent'; it is really urgent."
State Of Play
- We’re planning a series of fundraising concerts (for each concert, one acoustic, two “rock” acts) to provide us with an overall profit of £500 for our deposit for the next general election. If we make 5% or better in the general election, we get the money back, hooray!
- We will have 6000-copy ward newsletters in Cheylesmore for November 2008, February 2009, and May 2009. Why Cheylesmore? It’s part of Coventry South (where we will run at the general election). We’ve run there the last two local elections (Bryn Tittle in 2007; Aisa Kara in 2008). Kevin Foster is a Cheylesmore councillor (he’s the Tory candidate for Coventry South). Hazel Noonan is a Cheylesmore councillor (she’s the cabinet member for City Services, and the Tory candidate for Coventry North-East). Cheylesmore is also next door to both the incinerator and the airport.
- We are continuing our monthly series of “Canal Walks” – on the last Sunday of each month, we gather at the Coventry Peace House, to, oddly enough, walk up the canal to the Greyhound Inn at Sutton Stop. It’s a great way to socialise and exchange ideas.
- We will be writing a series of letters to local Labour MPs, calling upon them to sign Early Day Motions. EDMs are like straw polls for MPs (non-binding, but an indication of where their political sympathies lie).
- We will continue maintaining the very blog that you’re reading now (which is up to about 80 visits per weekday).
- We will have 6000-copy ward newsletters in Cheylesmore for November 2008, February 2009, and May 2009. Why Cheylesmore? It’s part of Coventry South (where we will run at the general election). We’ve run there the last two local elections (Bryn Tittle in 2007; Aisa Kara in 2008). Kevin Foster is a Cheylesmore councillor (he’s the Tory candidate for Coventry South). Hazel Noonan is a Cheylesmore councillor (she’s the cabinet member for City Services, and the Tory candidate for Coventry North-East). Cheylesmore is also next door to both the incinerator and the airport.
- We are continuing our monthly series of “Canal Walks” – on the last Sunday of each month, we gather at the Coventry Peace House, to, oddly enough, walk up the canal to the Greyhound Inn at Sutton Stop. It’s a great way to socialise and exchange ideas.
- We will be writing a series of letters to local Labour MPs, calling upon them to sign Early Day Motions. EDMs are like straw polls for MPs (non-binding, but an indication of where their political sympathies lie).
- We will continue maintaining the very blog that you’re reading now (which is up to about 80 visits per weekday).
Effects Of The Cabinet Shuffle
Peter Preston points out a few problems with creating an "Energy and Climate Change" ministry:
"The Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform - a mere 15 months old itself - will be dismembered. Power in its nuclear, fuel-poverty and save-the-planet form goes with Ed. But Hilary Benn, back at what remains of diminished Defra, is left with a rag-bag that doesn't cohere. For what, after all, does climate change mean in practical terms? It means drastic change to our environment. It means flood defences, food crises, the death of wildlife and, intrinsically, of our way of life. Government has an agency to cover that crucial beat. It is called the Environment Agency: and Benn remains its sponsoring minister. Yet now, bizarrely, that agency's role is chucked into the latest mix. Nobody knows how climate change - in Ed's new empire - fits with green monitoring and enforcement over at what's left at Benn's."
04 October 2008
03 October 2008
A Sub-Prime Cabinet Shuffle
When the country is unravelling due to sub-prime mortgage loans, bringing back Peter Mandelson is a pretty big mistake in judgement.
In 1996, people were perplexed how Mandelson, a backbench MP earning just over £40,000 a year, was able to afford a £475,000 four-storey house. It was revealed, two years later, that he had received a secret loan of £373 000 (at Midland Bank base rate, substantially lower than the market mortgage rate) from the MP for Coventry North-West, Geoffrey Robinson. As secretary of state for the DTI, Mandelson's officials were investigating Robinson on two separate grounds. Hence, Mandelson's first resignation.
It's interesting that Justin Forsyth is being appointed as Gordon Brown's new "spin doctor" ... Forsyth is the former head of policy for Oxfam. He probably has a view on Peter Mandelson and aid/trade towards developing countries.
Caroline Lucas on Peter Mandelson: "If there was ever a time to put the high priest of corporate globalisation in charge of regulating our wayward economy, this isn't it. You might as well get Al Capone to run a Young Offenders Institution."
Finally, some reaction to the creation of a ministerial post for "Energy and Climate Change" for Ed Miliband:
- The Guardian
- the think-tank Policy Exchange wonders if the new department will take over international climate change negotiations from Defra?
- the Renewable Energy Association wants Miliband to find ways ways to overcome delays in starting up new wind and marine power projects
- John Sauven, Greenpeace: "Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change. The first test of Ed Miliband's credibility will be whether he stops the UK's first new coal-fired power station in over 30 years at Kingsnorth in Kent."
In 1996, people were perplexed how Mandelson, a backbench MP earning just over £40,000 a year, was able to afford a £475,000 four-storey house. It was revealed, two years later, that he had received a secret loan of £373 000 (at Midland Bank base rate, substantially lower than the market mortgage rate) from the MP for Coventry North-West, Geoffrey Robinson. As secretary of state for the DTI, Mandelson's officials were investigating Robinson on two separate grounds. Hence, Mandelson's first resignation.
It's interesting that Justin Forsyth is being appointed as Gordon Brown's new "spin doctor" ... Forsyth is the former head of policy for Oxfam. He probably has a view on Peter Mandelson and aid/trade towards developing countries.
Caroline Lucas on Peter Mandelson: "If there was ever a time to put the high priest of corporate globalisation in charge of regulating our wayward economy, this isn't it. You might as well get Al Capone to run a Young Offenders Institution."
Finally, some reaction to the creation of a ministerial post for "Energy and Climate Change" for Ed Miliband:
- The Guardian
- the think-tank Policy Exchange wonders if the new department will take over international climate change negotiations from Defra?
- the Renewable Energy Association wants Miliband to find ways ways to overcome delays in starting up new wind and marine power projects
- John Sauven, Greenpeace: "Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change. The first test of Ed Miliband's credibility will be whether he stops the UK's first new coal-fired power station in over 30 years at Kingsnorth in Kent."
A Fine Nuclear Mess
India is a nuclear power that hasn't signed the NPT, but the US is fine with investing $14 billion in new Indian reactors and nuclear plants over the next year alone.
Iran has signed the NPT, but the US wants to ban it from even having civilian nuclear power. Iran says it "could reconsider its uranium enrichment program if it gets cast-iron guarantees of regular international fuel supplies for its nuclear power plants," but I doubt the US will play ball.
Pakistan hasn't signed the NPT, wants a US nuclear investment deal despite being part of a shadowy network of nuclear technology trafficking, yet, they remain a key ally in the war on terror, with lawless regions along the border with Afghanistan.
My head hurts.
Iran has signed the NPT, but the US wants to ban it from even having civilian nuclear power. Iran says it "could reconsider its uranium enrichment program if it gets cast-iron guarantees of regular international fuel supplies for its nuclear power plants," but I doubt the US will play ball.
Pakistan hasn't signed the NPT, wants a US nuclear investment deal despite being part of a shadowy network of nuclear technology trafficking, yet, they remain a key ally in the war on terror, with lawless regions along the border with Afghanistan.
My head hurts.
"World Day For Decent Work"
The World Day For Decent Work is on the 7th of October. The TUC will be holding a day of activities at Congress House in London which will focus on rights at work and ending inequality in the workplace.
Only 2% of state schools in Britain have introduced some form of restorative justice into discipline codes. A successful pilot project that has led to a 45% reduction in rates of exclusion may change all of that.
US election: the Vice-Presidential debate was last night, but this story on the iPhone was interesting. John McCain has also pulled out of Michigan, which makes the "electoral math" harder for him.
You wait for stories on electric cars, and then two come along at once: "Renault sees demand for as many as 50,000 electric vehicles in 2011, the year the carmaker will begin selling such zero emission cars in Denmark, Israel and Portugal."
Only 2% of state schools in Britain have introduced some form of restorative justice into discipline codes. A successful pilot project that has led to a 45% reduction in rates of exclusion may change all of that.
US election: the Vice-Presidential debate was last night, but this story on the iPhone was interesting. John McCain has also pulled out of Michigan, which makes the "electoral math" harder for him.
You wait for stories on electric cars, and then two come along at once: "Renault sees demand for as many as 50,000 electric vehicles in 2011, the year the carmaker will begin selling such zero emission cars in Denmark, Israel and Portugal."
02 October 2008
A Transformative Cabinet Shuffle
Gordon Brown is expected to shuffle his cabinet in the next few days. One interesting person tipped for promotion is Phil Hope, currently, the Minister for the Third Sector (educated at a comprehensive, didn’t go to Oxbridge, an expert in youth policy).
The problem with cabinet shuffles is that they tinker. They don't transform.
Idea one: Brown could take the Cabinet Office and turn it into a vehicle to drastically reduce carbon emissions across all of central government. The Cabinet Office is already in charge of "resource allocation" and "monitoring and improving" the performance of ministies. It is already in charge of bodies like the Civil Contingencies Secretariat which works to ensure "the UK's resilience against disruptive challenge." Right now, that means avian flu or flooding, but there will be nothing more disruptive than climate change plus peak oil. Every decision across government could be run through the Cabinet Office to make sure it's carbon-thrifty.
Idea two: If women are half the country, they should be half the cabinet.
Idea three: Create a "Minister For The Hundred" to co-ordinate policy for the 100 most deprived wards in the country. When you read about various schemes around the country, your eyes glaze over in an alphabet soup: ASBOs, SRBs, FCR toolkits, EAZs, CDTs, alcohol and DPPOs, ESF and ERDF. There must be an easier way to share lessons learnt. If something like the idea of a "Drug Court" in Glasgow works, why not spread it across the country?
Any other ideas?
The problem with cabinet shuffles is that they tinker. They don't transform.
Idea one: Brown could take the Cabinet Office and turn it into a vehicle to drastically reduce carbon emissions across all of central government. The Cabinet Office is already in charge of "resource allocation" and "monitoring and improving" the performance of ministies. It is already in charge of bodies like the Civil Contingencies Secretariat which works to ensure "the UK's resilience against disruptive challenge." Right now, that means avian flu or flooding, but there will be nothing more disruptive than climate change plus peak oil. Every decision across government could be run through the Cabinet Office to make sure it's carbon-thrifty.
Idea two: If women are half the country, they should be half the cabinet.
Idea three: Create a "Minister For The Hundred" to co-ordinate policy for the 100 most deprived wards in the country. When you read about various schemes around the country, your eyes glaze over in an alphabet soup: ASBOs, SRBs, FCR toolkits, EAZs, CDTs, alcohol and DPPOs, ESF and ERDF. There must be an easier way to share lessons learnt. If something like the idea of a "Drug Court" in Glasgow works, why not spread it across the country?
Any other ideas?
Tory Conference - Cameron's Speech
David Cameron spoke for 65 minutes at conference, but he didn’t mention his 2005 idea of a "carbon audit office" -- a watchdog for a new statutory framework with specific year-by-year requirements for carbon cuts. In his leadership contest with David Davis, he said such an office would perform a role in checking emissions similar to the Monetary Policy Committee in monitoring and forecasting inflation. Cameron is green only when it suits him.I thought one part of Cameron’s speech did hit home (and it wasn’t quoted as part of Nick Robinson’s package on the BBC’s 10 O’Clock News). He read out a letter from a constituent whose wife had died from MRSA complications. The man claimed that her treatment "was like something out of a 17th century asylum not a 21st century £90 billion health service." Cameron sent the letter to Alan Johnson, as Health Secretary, and received the following reply:
"A complaints procedure has been established for the NHS to resolve concerns … Each hospital and Primary Care Trust has a Patient Advice and Liaison Service to support people who wish to make a complaint … There is also an Independent Complaints Advocacy Service … If, when Mr Woods has received a response, he remains dissatisfied, it is open to him to approach the Healthcare Commission and seek an independent review of his complaint and local organisation's response … Once the Health Care Commission has investigated the case he can approach the Health Service Ombudsman if he remains dissatisfied.”Cameron followed up reading out the letter with the zinger: "four ways to make a complaint but not one way for my constituent's wife to die with dignity."
01 October 2008
98 Months And Counting
Andrew Simms, The Guardian:
"With talk of new runways and coal-fired power stations, the government is engaged in the environmental equivalent of promoting unguaranteed sub-prime mortgages with no credit checks and telling banks with no assets to keep lending."
First Episode Of "Ministry Of Food"
A few reviews of "Jamie's Ministry of Food" in the papers this morning: Indie, Telegraph, and Times. The Sun has some sort of DVD giveaway from Oliver. There's also an in-depth article by Felicity Lawrence in the Guardian.
You can see the programme's website here.
Oliver has set up an information centre in Rotherham town centre (ironically, just beside Mickey D's), with demonstrations, recipe information, and cooking classes to learn the basics (frying, chopping, roasting).
We have an obesity epidemic, so it says something about the lethargy of the political class in this country that it takes a celebrity chef to start something like this up. Sure, he may not get 250 000 people in Rotherham cooking from fresh, but what if he gets 25 000 people cooking for the first time in years?
You can see the programme's website here.
Oliver has set up an information centre in Rotherham town centre (ironically, just beside Mickey D's), with demonstrations, recipe information, and cooking classes to learn the basics (frying, chopping, roasting).
We have an obesity epidemic, so it says something about the lethargy of the political class in this country that it takes a celebrity chef to start something like this up. Sure, he may not get 250 000 people in Rotherham cooking from fresh, but what if he gets 25 000 people cooking for the first time in years?
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