In My View
Posted by Robert Walter, MP for North Dorset, at 09:21, Thu 12 June 2008:
As many of you may know this week is Carers Week, an event supported by a group of well known charities to highlight the important and often unacknowledged work of carers in the UK. In the Dorset alone we have nearly thousands careers devoting their time, effort and energy to look after a loved one.
A recent survey has shown that a large majority of carers feel their health is worse as a result of the strain of caring. I recently met volunteers and users at a carers’ group drop in centre in Shaftesbury. The work carers do is remarkable and they often have to make difficult sacrifices to do so and I am glad I have been able to support Carers Week and the one in 10 adults in the UK who is a carer.
Like the army of carers the Citizens Advice Bureau is totally dependent on volunteers. Last week I spoke at the North Dorset AAB annual meeting. With the desperate funding crises that I have written about here on many occasions I was delighted to hear North Dorset’s Council leader, Peter Webb, pledge to keep the flow of aid to the CAB after the current funding period.
The CAB has been operating for 72 years: the first bureaux opened just a day after the start of the First World War. Today the CAB does vital work for hundreds of people in Dorset and I know many would have been sad to see it go. CAB advice and assistance can help on issues as diverse as debt, immigration, housing, employment, benefits and more. We are lucky to have so many CAB offices in Dorset and I would urge people to consult them early before a problem gets too critical.
The Climate Change Bill has this week passed its first hurdle in the House of Commons and has now been sent to a committee for more thorough examination. As I am sure you know I have welcomed the Bill and voted in favour of it on Monday evening. The Bill has been strengthened by the House of Lords including yearly milestones and five-yearly budgets on Carbon Dioxide and ensuring that the Prime Minister is responsible for the Government’s response to emissions targets set by the Committee on Climate Change. I believe that the widely accepted scientific opinion that, to avoid dangerous climate change, it will be essential to keep the average global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius should be fundamental to our approach.
The UK’s long and short term targets for CO2 reductions should be set at levels which will ensure that we play our part in meeting that objective. It is perhaps also worth observing the importance of achieving cuts in CO2 in the near term, in order to set a clear trajectory.
We can and must all do our bit in this battle. I know there are sceptics who say that climate change is a myth. There are also many who say that our contribution is so small as too make no difference. Well if as a sophisticated rich post industrial country we cannot set an example, I know of no other way of persuading the developing mega-economies of Asia to make their contribution.
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Posted by tim kelly, 11:02, Thu 12 June 2008: (Is this post abusive?) #
I sensed, even before the credit squeeze, that the old school volunteer and care sector of our society was suffering. There appears to be a trend, even from the labour party to adopt conservative principles just to keep the country afloat. EG> the national health has taken a battering, dentists, and now doctors are being moved into an area that is not popular with many people, and other areas too, all in the name of privatisation (in all its subtle forms). I sense an unquantified era where "natural selection" will gain more ground, and the UK adopting more of an American style of existence and moving away from a European one. Our being influenced by American principles, I fear, will alienate us. Our strengths lie with Europe in the long term, however much we might dislike some of the rulings. These can be ironed out eventually.
As for global warming and the environment. I am afraid to say that alot of the problems have occurred due to not knowing fully what the real downsides of capitalism/consumerism are. (And capitalism has always been something conservatism has endorsed.)
I am not sure what the conservative principles are as regards, the volunteer sector, the national health etc. I am not even sure what the labour party principles are.
The labour party and conservative party look to be one and the same. The only thing that seperates them is "personality" (and whatever other shenanigans politicians get up to to gain power). And that's sad.
It was easier in the old days to know what party was doing what, or thinking what.