Welcome!

This site aims to help you to tell those who wish to represent you in Parliament about the issues and policies which would help to secure your vote.

It is hoped that enabling you to raise your concerns, while politicians are at their most receptive, will help to widen the range of issues addressed in future election campaigns and improve the quality of the policies on offer.

Useful links

A wide variety of online resources may be of assistance to anyone wishing to identify and contact their political representatives.

For example:

* You can find out who is standing in your constituency by entering your postcode on the Guardian's Aristotle website.

* The Aristotle site lists all of the MPs from the Labour, Liberal and Conservative parties and offers basic biographical and contact details.

* You can contact your MP using the free Fax Your MP website.

* Keele University has assembled an excellent selection of useful links which includes manifestos from interest groups such as the Woodland Trust, Age Concern, Oxfam and the RSPB and links to the election coverage of many UK newspapers and magazines.

* Last but not least, if you have not already registered to vote, you can register to vote in future elections by visiting the Electoral Commission's About My Vote website.

Action on Climate Change

The large-scale burning of fossil fuels to make energy has resulted in a build up of greenhouse gases in the Earth's atmosphere. This is leading to a warming in average global temperatures and altering the behaviour of the world's climate.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases are thought to have resulted in average global temperatures increasing by 0.7 degrees centigrade.


The UK government's chief scientist has warned that climate change is one the greatest threats to humanity, and there are already many anecdotal reports of unusual changes in the weather - in most regions of the world.

Based on the views of over 1000 climate scientists and complex climate models, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted that global temperatures will increase by between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees centigrade by 2100.


The 1.4 degree change is predicted to occur if we do all in our power to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, whilst the 5.8 degree change is anticipated if we continue to behave in the way that we have previously.

Business-as-usual is not an option, and changes in lifestyles and consumption patterns are going to be necessary.

Many technologies which permit humans to produce and use energy more efficiently already exist. However, they are not being adopted because prices rarely include environmental costs and government targets tend to be unambitious or lack any urgency.

Policies are needed which encourage greater energy efficiency, the expansion of renewable energy supplies and environmental costs to be included in prices.

Policies worth considering include the creation of a carbon tax, programmes to encourage greater energy efficiency in homes and businesses, a tax on aviation fuel and the transfer of government subsidies from the fossil fuel industry to the renewable and clean energy sectors.

You can find out more about climate change by visiting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Met Office, Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research, Stabilisation 2005, Friends of the Earth and Real Climate websites or compare the policies of the main political parties by visiting the Guardian website.

Corporate Accountability

Only 2.5% of transnational corporations have signed up to the United Nations Global Compact on corporate responsibility.

This standard is not particularly challenging and only used by a small minority of companies.

Real change will require all companies to act and to behave more sustainably and responsibly.

We need to switch from voluntary responsibility to enforced accountability.

See: Friends of the Earth, CorpWatch

Scrap Perverse Subsidies

Scrap subsidies which are bad for the economy and the environment.

For examples subsidies associated with the following:

Agriculture

Aviation Fuel

Nuclear industry

Coal mining

Not all subsidies are bad and redirected funds could be used to encourage more sustainable rural development, R & D and renewables.

At present almost 50% of the EU's budget goes to farmers who represent approx. 7% of the EU's population.

Climate change

Climate change has always happened but atmospheric CO2 concentrations will soon be double those that had existed for the 1000 years before the start of the industrial revolution.

Human induced climate change is real and already effecting our weather.

Graphs 1 and 2 (see Ban the Bulb campaign site)
CO2 concentration for past 1000 years
Global temperature projections for the next 100 years 1.4 - 5.8 degree C

Possible affects on Indian monsoon, Australian agriculture, Bangladeshi flooding, Greenland icesheet, US hurricane season > sea levels (major cities), etc, etc

IPCC, Met Office, Hadley Centre, Stabilisation 2005 (Exeter conference), Real Climate blog

Food safety + healthy eating

Heart disease, Obesity, diabetes, premature deaths before parents

High levels of Salt, sugar, fat

Man-made hydrogenated trans fats (rarely labelled, indigestable, non-biodegradable)

Processed food often has poor labelling and is full of unhealthy ingredients which help to boost profits

Salmonella, Mad Cow Disease (BSE) > Food Standards Agency

World Environment Organisation

An equivalent to the WTO is needed in order to protect the global environment

The economy is a wholly owned subsidary of the environment

The long term protection of the environment and human survival will rely on the economy and trade operating within sustainable constraints. This is not happening at present because the WTO is undermining existing forms of protection, and its actions cannot be countered effectively by existing institutions.

We have nowhere to go if we destroy this planet to the point that we make it uninhabitable for humans and many other species.

Clean Water + Improved Sanitation

Water Aid

Low tech but cost effective solutions would save millions of lives for approximately 10 billion pounds per annum.

Preventable Disease

Diarrhoea
Malaria > nets
River blindness
Bilharzia
Elephantisis
Polio
Diaorreah
Hepititus B

STDs > Stop AIDS, Syphilis

Condoms, education, clinics, medication

TRIPS > Access to Medicines (MSF)

Universal Primary School Education

One of the Millennium Development Goals, Rights of the Child,

Education statistics

Save the Children
UNICEF

UK education : the benefits of a high-quality primary school education > the scandinavian experience

A key driver of other forms of social, economic and environment change

Cancel Third World Debt

Money was lent irresponsibly by western banks and governments.

Money was lent to corrupt dictators with little or no benefit to the populations of the countries expected to fund loan repayments.

Debt has crippled and impoverished the economies of many poor countries.

Some highly indebted poor countries spend three times more on repaying their debt than they do on funding their health and education services (e.g. Zambia)


See: Jubilee 2000 (Drop the Debt), Jubilee Research, New Economics Foundation, James Robertson (money pump), World Bank, IMF, Oxfam, Action Aid, Publish What You Pay, Transparency International, Africa Commission

Make Trade Fair

Developed countries should remove unfair agricultural subsidies, export credit and protection.

Oxfam: Make Trade Fair campaign

Christian Aid : Ghana

Encourage different forms of rural development in developed countries; diversify agriculture, develop tourism, improve public transport, access to basc and high tech services.

Improve wildlife research, protection + monitoring

In order to detect changes in the health of different species and habitats we need to collect base-line and repeatable data on the relative abundance of all UK mammal species.

We know little about the ecology of most UK mammal species, in particular bats.

We know little about the effects that land management strategies are having on our wildlife, or what threats (e.g. invasive species, disease) they face.

Polluter Pays

"Internalising externalities"...

Carbon Tax
fuel tax, aviation fuel exempt at present

Chewing Gum Tax
(approx. 60,000 pound to clean chewing gum off the streets of an average town)

Plastic Bag Tax
(Ireland)

Only permit those polluting rivers to extract fresh water from below their own effluent pipe.
Richard Southwood NATO paper re: River Danube

Publish What You Pay

Publish What You Pay campaign

Commission for Africa

Transparency International

Brandt Report, Brundtland Report

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