Up to this point the 23 countries who had ratified it accounted for only 1% of carbon emissions and the two new ones are responsible for 40% so it was a significant moment. Sadly the agreement only comes into effect once 55 countries responsible for at least 55% of emissions have ratified it. The UK haven't yet done so, a fact which doesn't surprise the cynic in me one little bit. I am also very cynical about any of these agreements. How are they policed? What happens if signatories fail to meet their obligation. What about countries who haven't signed up? Will polluting industries merely relocate to these countries and carry on as before?
Why have we not ratified it yet? You tell me. The pig fancier promised the greenest ever government in a speech in 2010. Something he described as 'a very simple ambition'. But then he was also confident that we would remain in the EU and that austerity was a necessity. Will Mrs May ratify the agreement? One would hope so, but she is still a mystery to most of us. No sooner had she become our seventh unelected Prime Minister since the war (there have been eight elected PMs in that time) than they all went on holiday and the Conservative Party disappeared to the four corners of the globe, Mrs May herself to Switzerland. I would like to think she was using her time studying the Swiss Model of European trade agreements, but I fear she was just enjoying herself with her husband. This is in stark contrast to those in the Labour Party who have spent the summer locked in mortal combat.
Will she make a move on Hinkley? She has been calling our relationship with China a Golden Age and the Chinese have been pushing from their side. I am not optimistic that she will make any sort of decision that I will be happy with, but then that probably goes for all her policies, so no surprise there.
Meanwhile back at home, Jeremy Corbyn has been addressing a large crowd in Folkestone. An ice cream van drove past our house earlier in the day, possibly Owen Smith out touting for trade. He did promise to visit all parts of the country, and I hadn't seen him before, so it could have been him. Despite all attempts to stop it I think that it is a fairly safe bet that Mr Corbyn will be re-elected as leader. It would seem that Tom Watson agrees with me because it seems he is already planning his next move. He is planning (according to the Mirror) to try to change the method of electing the party leader back to the old electoral college system changed by Ed Miliband to try and reduce the influence of the unions, ironically those very unions who enabled him to beat his brother for the leadership which, according to some led to Labour losing the next General Election. Despite the Mirror claiming this as news it is really slightly olds as it was basically suggested in an interview which Watson gave to Decca Aitkenhead in the Guardian on 9th August. That the Mirror thinks he may be trying to bring this about by manipulating the NEC is significant in that it signals that he thinks that Smith has lost, despite the Young Pretender claiming to be neck and neck. I suspect he is ignoring the giraffe like dimensions of Corbyn's neck, but we shall see. Maybe the machinations at Party Headquarters have been successful in suspending sufficient of his opponent's supporters to give him a chance, but I feel that this is unlikely. Even they could not perpetrate fraud on such a massive scale. Surely.
I do find it very distressing that the Labour Party in Westminster seem to find the concept of democracy so difficult to grasp. For the first time in Britain we have a Labour Party of a significant size which elects its leader on the basis of one member one vote. We also have a leader who believes in letting the people decide, whose entire political life has been based on fairness, dialogue and lack of personal abuse. Ranged against him we have a group of embittered MPs who seem to espouse the exact opposite. It is not fair that they have tried since the very day he was elected to undermine him and make his job as difficult as possible. Their idea of dialogue is to tell him to resign. Why should he? Do the wishes of tens of thousands of party members mean nothing? They claim he is unelectable yet have signally failed to find anyone more electable who is willing to stand against him, and have done their damnedest to make it into a self fulfilling prophecy anyway. He has been elected as leader. If they had put half as much effort into being an effective opposition as they have put into trying to replace him, just think what an impact they might have had. They also claim that Corbyn supporters have resorted to personal abuse which may or may not be true. Personal abuse abounds on social media, whether it originates from genuine Corbyn supporters is unproven. What is clear is that Jeremy Corbyn himself is never rude or abusive, despite immense provocation. The same cannot be said of his opponent who has made several attacks on Corbyn and who also has made several cringeworthy comments on air which make him come across as slightly creepy, specifically his innuendo about his inside leg measurement and his lack of need for Viagra.
We shall have to see what comes of Mr Watson's efforts to further subvert democracy in the coming weeks.
Love Tim xx
I do find it very distressing that the Labour Party in Westminster seem to find the concept of democracy so difficult to grasp. For the first time in Britain we have a Labour Party of a significant size which elects its leader on the basis of one member one vote. We also have a leader who believes in letting the people decide, whose entire political life has been based on fairness, dialogue and lack of personal abuse. Ranged against him we have a group of embittered MPs who seem to espouse the exact opposite. It is not fair that they have tried since the very day he was elected to undermine him and make his job as difficult as possible. Their idea of dialogue is to tell him to resign. Why should he? Do the wishes of tens of thousands of party members mean nothing? They claim he is unelectable yet have signally failed to find anyone more electable who is willing to stand against him, and have done their damnedest to make it into a self fulfilling prophecy anyway. He has been elected as leader. If they had put half as much effort into being an effective opposition as they have put into trying to replace him, just think what an impact they might have had. They also claim that Corbyn supporters have resorted to personal abuse which may or may not be true. Personal abuse abounds on social media, whether it originates from genuine Corbyn supporters is unproven. What is clear is that Jeremy Corbyn himself is never rude or abusive, despite immense provocation. The same cannot be said of his opponent who has made several attacks on Corbyn and who also has made several cringeworthy comments on air which make him come across as slightly creepy, specifically his innuendo about his inside leg measurement and his lack of need for Viagra.
We shall have to see what comes of Mr Watson's efforts to further subvert democracy in the coming weeks.
Love Tim xx
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