St Peter’s was packed last night at the Climate Change Meeting, hosted by Marlborough Quakers, to hear our local (Devizes constituency) MP, Danny Kruger explain the Government strategies regarding addressing the issue of Climate Change. The large audience also heard from Nick Maurice and from Rachel Rosedale of the Marlborough Quakers and also from Masireh Touray, originally from Gunjur, The Gambia, about what Climate change is doing to a small and impoverished community there. We are feeling the effects here, but there – the effects go far deeper and are potentially devastating.
For Danny, a pretty tall order. Or so it would appear with the (latest) Prime Minister being sufficiently embarrassed to perform a screeching u-turn and jet off for a couple of days to the COP27 in Sharm el Sheikh, having initially declined (too busy) and also having reaffirmed his fleeting predecessor’s order to forbid the new King, Charles III from travelling to Egypt.
Danny presented his belief and commitment to nature, the environment and the life that we currently lead, particularly here in this area and the importance of protecting the natural habitat. But, and this is the big ‘but’, what he explains personally isn’t how it always comes across from the Government perspective, and as Hayley Lambert from ‘Packaging Not Included’ asked in the open session why wasn’t he supporting the Climate and Ecology Bill going through Parliament presently, he answered that he would be ‘following up’ on this.
Danny spoke for twenty minutes or so, followed by a very impassioned speech from Masireh Touray. She is the Chair of the Kombo Silla Association (KSA) which is the Gambian diaspora organisation that supports Gambians in the UK. She described the real threat, and effect already of Climate Change on her homeland. The Gambia doesn’t have the immediate resource to deal with this so it was a plea, to the rest of the world to do what they can to address this serious issue that will irreversibly change The Gambia forever.
The question and answers session at the end was busy. Many hands were raised, many questions were asked, many points were expressed – some with real feeling. And those active in the audience weren’t just from the older Marlborough community, many younger, from St John’s particularly took the opportunity to raise their concerns, as they will be inheriting the mess that we (and preceding generations) are bequeathing them. It will be for them to deal with the after effects of what is being done.
So for Danny, it was a brave move. Whatever his own beliefs may be, what comes out of Government is only too frequently (and too easily) recognised as rhetoric and platitudes. And whilst he may clearly state that he is the Devizes representative in Westminster, rather than the Westminster representative in Devizes, the Government and party influence is strong, influential and runs very deep. So inevitably he, as our MP is open to criticism and is the first line of ‘attack’ for those who believe deeply that we are all running headlong into a real existential problem.
But he spoke from the heart. He was honest when stating that he was neither a scientist nor an expert, and for any politician that is to be welcomed and a refreshing change. Sure, it may leave that representative open to criticism for ‘not finding out’, but how many of us are that well up in the real detail? Probably very, very few and yes, we should all learn more to understand these real issues as what we face is – to re-use that word first uttered in the previous paragraph – existential. Danny is no different in this respect and he made that clear, but he didn’t resort to the line of Government rhetoric and platitude that many of his contemporaries do, as a ‘defence’ when assailed by those with deep seated concerns. For that we should be grateful.
And we should hope that the strength of feeling, opinion and concern – not least demonstrated by the attendance to last night’s meeting will be taken on board and relayed to the rest of the Westminster community at the appropriate and apposite times.
‘Parts of Speech’: a new book by Tony Millett
