My interest in politics is becoming stronger everyday, this is because as I get older (26 next) and hopefully wiser I realise that politics affects every aspect of my life – as it does yours. Thus today when the Queens speech was delivered I was very interested to find out which Bills had been included.

By the way in case you did not know, the Queens speech is only hers in name as it is the government’s script to communicate their ‘long term changes’ that they think the UK needs. I think that instead of using the outdated fashion of using the Queen, the PM should deliver it himself as it is his words.

Anyhow, although the government gave us a sneak preview of the proposed Bills earlier on in the year the speech today provided confirmation of what was on ‘their agenda’.

In total there were 29 Bills covered including the following four all of which have an affect on the environment:

Climate Change Bill

Through the introduction of this Bill the UK will be set to become the first nation to introduce legislation to cut its contribution to climate change. The Bill should create a legal framework to reduce the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions by 60% by 2050.

I think that the introduction of the Bill is fantastic; however it needs to be strengthened in order to be truly effective. Environmental organisations such as Friends of the Earth want to see it increased to 80% by 2050 – I agree.

However in terms of the government even delivering their target of 60% I am very interested to see how they propose that the UK achieves this. I think that environmental lobby groups will play an extremely important role in supporting and ensuring that the targets are met, as will individuals – we can not expect the government to do everything. And yes – I personally will take action by taking my lifestyle to an even greener level (will keep you update on GGG).

Marine (Draft) Bill

Hurrah! They mentioned the Marine Bill which I was actively involved in lobbying for as reported in my ‘Can we have the Bill please’ post .

However…….it was only a draft bill which is extremely disappointing as this may mean that it will only amount to another consultation which is what happened back in 2005. The UK Government, the EU and the rest of the World need to pay attention because our seas are dying and we have to prevent further species from declining and our seas from becoming polluted.

Further lobbying and strong action needs to be taken to get the Marine Bill took serious. I will keep you updated about my own personal lobbying on this.

Planning Bill

The Bill was introduced in response to issues of unaffordable housing and an increase in population. Thus the PM has pledged to build 3million homes by 2020.

3 million? Where? Urban areas are already extremely cramped in the UK and it is not good for society to live too cramped together for social and psychological reasons. In urban areas green spaces are required for environmental and also health reasons, thus cramping in more houses is not a real solution.

Where will they put these new houses then? Brown belt, Green Belt – who knows perhaps even SSSI’s (sites of special scientific interest) may not be safe.

I must admit that the planning bill does also bring in ethical issues as well as environmental, because from my understanding we need more houses due to our increasing population of migrants / immigrants. Now I am a descendent of an immigrant (my father came to the UK aged 4 – became a UK citizen when he was 18) and I am engaged to an immigrant (who was a refugee and is now a UK citizen). I would have hated to have thought that my father or my fiancé would not have been welcome into the UK due to issues with increased population (there were no problems back then).

However today in the UK I think that there is an ethical versus an environmental issue in terms of population. If the population level keeps increasing then obviously we need to build more houses, roads, facilities etc – potentially even at the risk of losing important green belt land and having an affect on wildlife – thus being an environmental issue. On the other hand some of the people coming to the UK could be environmental or political refugees thus raising an ethical issue of if we don’t welcome them and house them, then what will happen to them? Who will look after them?

I wish that I had the answers to this one – however I am struggling. What do you think?

Energy Bill

Through this Bill the government aims to provide greater incentives for renewable energy generation. Which is great if this means that they want to look into solar etc. However the Bill will also include investing into nuclear power, which is absolutely disastrous.

Local Transport Bill

This Bill would give local authorities more freedom in terms of local transport policies including the controversial road-pricing schemes. Although I am a non driver (I use pubic transport or cycle instead and I NEVER want to drive) I am sceptical about road pricing, we should reduce the amount of cars on the road for many reasons including environmental – but would charging people work. Would some find a way round it? Would the poor suffer? Would those who can not walk / cycle and rely on someone like a carer to take them out suffer. I think I will look more into this Bill and see what they are proposing and implications.

Conclusion……….

Thank you if you read all the way to the end as it was a long post (sorry).  Anyhow in conclusion it is great that the government included these Bills in their agenda but further work is required – so lets keep lobbying and also ensuring we take personal responsibility ourselves for a greener (more ethical) future.

Anyhow let me know your thoughts about the Bills. Thanks.