On Friday 4th December, two members of our Greenpeace Group went to lobby our local MP's over the upcoming Energy Bill, and Greenpeace's bid to get some green amendments into it, to run alongside the Go Beyond Oil Campaign!
First it was Emily's turn to see Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for Wrekin. This meeting went very well. Coincidentally Emily's meeting followed some members of the local Friends of the Earth group, who were also lobbying Mr Pritchard over the energy bill! Nice timing! So, Emily tells me, he was quite 'clued-up' and receptive to what she wanted to discuss, and promised to support in principle, Greenpeace's suggested amendments to the Bill, and to also speak to Chris Huhne, with whom he has a meeting this week!
It also transpires that Mr Pritchard is on the Environmental Audit Committee and so a continued relationship with him would be worthwhile forging!
All going well so far....
Then later the same afternoon, Emily accompanied Katie, our network key activist to see the other local MP, David Wright (Labour). He was also very positive about what we had to discuss. He completely agreed with our proposals surrounding the Green Deal and Green Bank, and that the Government does need to put targets in place to reduce carbon emissions from housing and give people incentives and help to do so.
He also agreed that, having obviously heard in the news about the disaster at Deep Water Horizon, surrounding exploratory oil drilling in dangerous and hard to reach places, he could see that the legislation of this needed to be looked at. He also fully supported a move towards renewable energy but did feel that this needed to be a phased approach.
The only thing we did not agreed on was nuclear power (he dislikes coal) - as he perceives this as environmentally friendly in comparison with coal - the truth on this was quickly explained!! He agreed that we need to look at this too but was not prepared to make any personal commitments until he had gathered some more information.
Following the meeting, Mr Wright agreed to speak to a colleague on the Environmental Audit Committee to gather some more information and was happy to take away our literature. In the meantime he was happy to write to Chris Huhne on my behalf expressing my concerns and suggested amendments. He promised to write and inform me of his decision about the amendments once he felt fully informed, and to forward me a copy of any reply from Chris Huhne in the meantime.
During this meeting we also handed over some post cards signed by local constituents in support of the amendments and our need to 'Go Beyond Oil' and also said he would write to each of them individually as well!
All in all, a thoroughly successful day of lobbying!
We came home, feeling that going to see our MP can be worthwhile, and so sent a quick email down to Canonbury Villas to tell them how it went!
The next day was the day of the Greenpeace Christmas Bash, and in true Telford and Wrekin tradition, decided to do something a bit different - we were off to Laser Quest! (A suitably non-violent version of paintball, we thought - not to mention cheaper!)
So off we all went, with a few mis-directions along the way, and all made it there in on piece, despite the snow and ice!
Following a hilarious safety video, we all donned our laser vest, picked up our laser-guns and we were off! ...Though it was every man for himself, we soon found ourselves working together to beat some pretty ruthless and determined eight year olds!
After half an hour of giggling, some nice sniper shots from Matt and "peeeew peeeews" from Emily, it was over, and we were all EXHAUSTED!!
We all recieved our scores and were delighted to discover that the score system was having an off day, and appeared to lie to us. Nevertheless, one of our number came first - congratulations Doug - beating the children was very satisfying!
Then after a few games on some ridiculously overprices arcade games, we headed home for some post laser quest frivolities! We watched Avatar (a poignant film about the underdogs winning over the big corporations for moral reasons, depicted in the land of blue cat-people, but nevertheless appropriate!) and drank lots and lots of mulled wine!
A successfull weekend for Greenpeace T&W!
...And seeing as this is likely to be the last blog of the year, Happy Christmas everyone! See you at the Bacchus for our first meeting of 2011 on the 3rd Wednesday of January! :D
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