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New Blackmore Vale, 8 July 2022
blackmorevale.net
Politics
Reasons to celebrate the young I am pretty certain most people think their generation was the best and everyone else who comes afterwards is not quite as good. Well, among all the doom and gloom, war, upheavals and political uncertainties I thought we could all do with a bit of good and encouraging news. If my recent interactions with young people in North Dorset is anything to go by then our immediate area and the wider country is in safe hands. Recently, with the Mayor and Mayoress of Blandford, I had the great pleasure of meeting young St John Ambulance volunteers. They were engaged and committed to their work. They explained to me how to use a defibrillator. They were happy to be volunteering and keen to help their local community. Every school I visit I am quizzed and cross-examined about climate change, pollution and what the Government is doing to make things better. Last Friday I was invited to talk to a group of students about pollution in the River Stour and
Conservative MP for North Dorset Simon Hoare what they could do to raise the profile of the issue. A recent visit to the Brownies of Shaftesbury raised similar issues of environment and climate. I have seen young people raise money for Ukraine as well as welcoming new families into their homes. On Armed Forces Day it was a real pleasure to see the young cadets proudly wearing uniform and taking a full part in the service.
Climate change is a big issue for young people. PHOTO: 0fjd125gk87/Pixabay
These young people and countless others take a broader and wider view of the world than any other generation before them. Connected by technology, concerns and values theirs is a view that looks to engage and to help shape the future. They are certainly more liberal and relaxed in social issues be it sexuality, ethnicity or background. They are far more interested in what you are doing and going to do than what you’ve done or where you’ve come from.
Theirs is also a world a lot more uncertain than previous generations. Climate change, job security, getting on the property ladder are real issues of anxiety. My job, and the job of politics more widely, is to address these issues in order to ensure that, what we always thought of as the uninterruptable journey of upward social mobility – but which has frustratingly paused in recent years – is rebooted and in a sustainable way.
on the successful speed of the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out but deliberately ignore the huge failings elsewhere in dealing with the pandemic. Such as the claim that a ‘protective ring’ was thrown around care homes for the elderly. Not true. My mother caught Covid in Yeovil Hospital but was promptly discharged right back into the care home she’d come from. We now know that tens of thousands of care home residents caught Covid and died. Then there was the debacle of PPE procurement, with eyewatering profits and obscene commissions being paid to middlemen. Also the purchase of items which turned out to be useless. Billions of taxpayers’ money wasted, which could have been used to achieve a vital reduction of our country’s energy consumption by insulating homes, for example.
Johnson has blamed the media for the dramatic Tory defeats in the Wakefield and Tiverton/Honiton by-elections, saying they focused more on his personal conduct than on policy. So he considers his personal conduct to be of no consequence. For us to have such a Prime Minister at this time is more than just a national embarrassment, it’s a disaster. The enormity and urgency of the environmental crisis is ever more apparent, unfolding as it is even sooner and faster than was anticipated. Now more than ever we need strong, compassionate and caring leadership, with an understanding that we are all in the same boat. No doubt many are now wondering where best to place their political allegiance. As an ex Conservative voter myself, I’m happy to have chosen the Green Party.
Johnson’s ‘exceptional’ government Boris Johnson recently claimed his Government’s record is ‘exceptional’. He has never spoken a truer word. The record includes lockdown rule-breaking in Downing Street; failing to introduce urgently needed changes to the ministerial code and instead making changes that entrench the Prime Minister’s powers over standards in government; attempting to silence public dissent by criminalising non-violent protesters instead of dealing with the critical issues being protested about; accepting donations from Russian donors and failing to stop the UK being used as a safe haven for dirty money; pledging to help end deforestation but paying Drax power station a subsidy of more thab £2 million a day to burn 25 million trees a year; dragging its heels over replacing the zero-carbon building regulations the
Ken Huggins on behalf of the Green Party in North Dorset Conservative Government scrapped in 2015. The list goes on. An exceptional record but hardly one to boast about. Government spokespeople take every opportunity to focus
