Dear Mr Pursglove
I must write to congratulate you on your return as my MP and with a significantly increased majority. I voted for your main opponent in the election, Beth Miller, but I still wish you well in parliament.
However, I do have several concerns about the direction that the Johnson government is going but I will raise only one, for now:
The removal of the non-regression part of the Brexit Bill is, as far as I am concerned, a broken promise. I did not believe that a Conservative government, if elected, was going to maintain environmental standards after Brexit and now I almost have that in writing from your party. Could you please seek assurances, or at least clarification, from ministers as to what environmental standards this government is aiming to maintain in UK law, please?
However, I do have three questions for you, personally, as my MP, please.
First, the Conservative manifesto was weak on climate change and very weak generally on environmental matters. This is a disappointment to me. I doubt that anyone who voted Conservative wished to see poor environmental performance from this government but I gather from the media that Conservative candidates like yourself were instructed not to promise much on climate change action – could you clarify whether that was the case please? I wrote to you on 16 October asking whether you, personally, believe that there is a climate crisis and, unusually for you, you failed to reply. May I ask that question again please? Do you, as my MP, believe that there is a climate crisis?
Also, I asked you about your receipt of over £20,000 as a donation from Alexander Termerko. You did not answer that question either. Could you please enlighten me as to why Offshore Group Newcastle (a company based in the northeast of England) and its Russian Deputy Chair Alexander Termerko were so impressed by my MP that they wanted to donate over £20,000 to your funds?
I wish you a Happy Christmas and an environmentally sustainable New Year in Westminster.
Dr Mark Avery
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It looks like the climate may be imposing itself on the Government whether they like it or not – closely linked to how they deal with their new supporters in soggy northern England. However, my big concern is we’ll just get lots more very expensive concrete. Freedom from CAP leaves the opportunity open to accept that we need to reverse the draining of our flood plains for arable farming and accept they must be there to absorb the flood – and farmers should be paid for providing this vital ecological service. Concrete alone cannot shield us from extreme events and as someone in the north commented to the media ‘we seem to be getting an awful lot of 60 year floods’. Australia is, sadly, and to the disgrace of it’s Prime Minister, currently demonstrating that tipping points aren’t a gradual ramping up of the norm, but a completely different scale of catastrophe.
We can see what has and is happening in the USA with Trump. Hard fought for laws and protection such as the Endangered Species Act are being eroded at a frightening pace. I fear that the same thing is going to happen here. Fox hunting will be back on the agenda, this to satisfy the “country set” and many more “toff” activities.
Well done Mark! Make her squirm!
Dave