Back to the blogging

It's been nearly two years since the last post. I guess I'm not a natural blogger. But a friend has just started a new blog, and that's inspired me to go back to this one.

The elections for the European Parliament will soon be upon us. Most people in the UK regard this as a totally yawnsville event, something that doesn't affect us and simply isn't worth bothering with. We're expecting a turnout of 20%. And yet what the European Parliament does affects us all, on a day to day basis, and quite a bit of our domestic legislation is simply putting into place what's been agreed on in Brussels.

Climate change is one of the big issues of this election, and indeed of this year. The Copenhagen Summit in December is really our last chance to take action: if we don't come up with an agreement to take drastic and immediate measures, then soon it will be too late, we will be in positive feedback, the warmer we get the warmer we'll become and that will be the end for the human race and a lot of other species on our planet. I want my grandchildren's grandchildren to survive, but for many of you - if you're under about 35 - it's doubtful that even your grandchildren will live out their natural span. Go and see 'The Age of Stupid' if you've not seen it: and in my view it gives a fairly optimistic picture, not an alarmist one.

I was at a meeting of four of our EuroParliament candidates on Friday. Two of them - the Green Party candidate and the LibDem member - put Climate change at the top of their agenda. If everyone who believed in the importance of addressing this issue voted Green, the Green candidates would get in everywhere, because so few people actually vote at all: but I make no secret that my vote is with the LibDems. Our candidate for North East England is a sound and experienced MEP, not at all a single issue person, and seems to me the most likely to influence the Parliament to deliver value for money. If you've seen Nigel Farage's Party Political for UKIP, by the way, don't believe it: I personally think that much of what he says is simply untrue. (Was it he who said Britain is not at war - where has he been these last few years!!)

But whatever your views - if indeed anyone actually reads this - can I urge you to use your vote on June 4th or whenever it is, and show that you're aware enough to realise that the European Union and its structures affect us all and so need people who are chosen by us as a whole, not just a few of us.