Do they all support us?

One of the things I find irritating as a campaigner is politicians being happy to join in a publicity opportunity attached to a campaign, but not to support the campaign's demands. I suspect I might get irritated a lot on this march. Whilst I'd love to think all the politicians who are joining us along the way fully support our demands, it would leave me wondering why UK carbon dioxide emissions are still rising (5 per cent since Labour came to power in 1997).

The main aim of our march is to get a stronger climate change bill, which is going through the House of Commons in the autumn. Our key demands are that we need at least an 80 per cent reduction in UK emissions by 2050; the UK government is currently promoting an out-of-date target of 60 per cent. The government is also refusing to include emissions from international aviation - the fastest growing source of UK emissions. If aviation is not included, it will continue to grow unheeded, and all our efforts to tackle climate change will be in vain.

So, I've decided to publish the names of all elected politicians who join in with the march, with the assumption that they support our demands. In Troon on Sunday we had:
Sandra Osborne MP (Labour)
John Scott MSP
Councillor Hugh Hunter
Councillor Nan McFarlan
Councillor Peter Convey

Unfortunately, in conversation with Sandra Osborne MP, it sounds like she intends to stick with the government's position on 60 per cent and not including aviation. Thankfully, there were several Ayrshire World Development Movement group members present who I know will be carrying-on the campaigning in the autumn. Hopefully Sandra will be willing to support climate justice by the autumn.

Lobbying MPs on the climate bill will be a mammoth but vital effort in the autumn - please do it. If you want to join in with your local World Development Movement group's lobbying, you can get in touch with them through:
http://www.wdm.org.uk/groups/index.htm