Toby on Triffids … sorry… ‘Tuesday’

 

Britain’s favourite gardener, Alan Titchmarsh, is a Yorkshire treasure who has become a national treasure. Born in Ilkley in 1949, he left school at 15 to become an apprentice gardener with Ilkley Council. Later he went on to study at Shipley Art and Technology Institute and then on to the wonderful career that has given pleasure to so many millions. So it is fitting that the Christmas season has been marked by his two-part tribute to the garden belonging to the most deeply loved of our national treasures – “The Queen’s Garden.”

Before Christmas, Alan gave a remarkable interview in which he talked about UKIP. What he said was, “I have some sympathy for the clarion wake-up call they’re trying to give the country.” Of Nigel Farage he said, “He’s saying what a lot of people, what the electorate, seems to think a lot of politicians are frightened of saying. He’s a good orator. He’s a populist. He’s a man people warm to.” And on immigration he said, “We have a problem in this country in that we’re just not big enough to take everybody who wants to come here…I do think we have a problem in that if people come over here they are instantly allowed benefits with rather too much ease…I think if I moved to a foreign country what would I do? I’d keep my own identity but I would feel some kind of obligation to fit in, to learn the language.”

Now, if a UKIP candidate said any of these things, our politically correct media and political class would immediately hurl accusations of ‘racist’ and ‘bigot’ at him or her. Because these words come from the hugely popular Alan Titchmarsh, they simply don’t dare. Recently, the Conservative MP Mark Garnier said that there was no need to pay any attention to the views of the electorate in places like Ilkley, or indeed like Thirsk and Malton, because we were only “dog-end voters in outlying regions.” Well Mr. Garnier, I for one am proud to be a “dog-end voter in an outlying region” and next May you and the rest of your divided and decaying party will find that we’ve a very nasty bite indeed!

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday 

“God Rest EU Merry Gentlemen…”

 

One of the many pleasures of living in Thirsk and Malton is the presence of the ancient Benedictine foundation of Ampleforth. With its Abbey and school, Ampleforth is a force for good at the heart of the constituency. Although a fairly traditional Anglican, I always value my Roman Catholic friends’ belief in the sanctity of human life and the integrity of the family.

Like our beloved Queen, Pope Francis of Rome is concerned not with the short term fashions of the moment, but rather with the enduring truths that govern all our lives. And Christmas is the season to reflect on these truths. So when Pope Francis visited the European Parliament in Strasbourg last month, his words should have been taken to heart by all who heard him.

What he said was, “In recent years, as the EU has expanded, there has been growing mistrust on the part of citizens towards institutions considered to be aloof, engaged in laying down rules perceived as insensitive to individual peoples, if not downright harmful…In many quarters we encounter a general impression of weariness and ageing, of a Europe that is now a ‘grandmother’, no longer fertile and vibrant. As a result, the great ideas that once inspired Europe seem to have lost their attraction, only to be replaced by the bureaucratic technicalities of its institutions…somewhat elderly and haggard…with a rather selfish lifestyle marked by an opulence that is no longer sustainable and which is frequently indifferent to the world around us…a conception of unity seen as uniformity that strikes at…the democratic system.”

What the good Pope was saying was that the idealism on which the European project had once been based was being replaced by something more sinister, more aggressive and more ideological. UKIP would support every single word of his address. My own hope is that Britain’s looming departure from the whole malign EU project will act as a catalyst, a wake-up call that will bring the nations of Europe to their senses and usher in a better Europe based on open trade and mutual respect between the different cultures in which the true strength of the whole Continent lies.

A very happy Christmas to you all!

Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday

…'What the frack??'

 

History was made last Wednesday when UKIP triggered our very first debate in the House of Commons. Led by the visionary Douglas Carswell, it was on the deeply troubling issue of fuel poverty. Like our looming food shortages, imminent fuel shortages are the direct consequence of insane Government policies. As Douglas declared, “current policies are not fit for purpose and a new common sense approach to meeting our energy needs is required.” Here in Thirsk and Malton, energy supplies have risen to the top of the political agenda with the discovery of abundant reserves of shale gas. UKIP’s policy is to support “the development of shale gas with proper safeguards for the local environment. Community Improvement Levy money from the development of shale gas fields will be earmarked for lower council taxes or community projects within the local authority being developed.”

Over the past fortnight, UKIP has had the benefit of an informed and inspiring presentation from Colin Heath, an independent energy consultant (also an expert on thorium nuclear fuel, but that’s another story) who is our PPC for Selby and Ainsty, with its strong coal mining tradition. I have also has a useful conversation with a valued old friend, Philip Tate of Frack Free Ryedale. My conclusions on “fracking” for shale gas here are as follows:

1. Shale gas extraction in the UK cannot be compared to the experience in the US for the simple reason that, under the Petroleum Act 1988, shale gas belongs to the Crown and not the landowner, and a Government licence is needed to extract it. The licence holder can then obtain ancillary rights under the Mines (Working Facilities and Support) Act 1966 to occupy land, obtain a water supply, dispose of effluent, erect buildings and lay pipes. This means that shale gas extraction is controlled by a range of Government agencies including the Health and Safety Executive, the Environmental Regulatory Authority and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. In the US, the early days of shale were like the Wild West, with wildcatters causing real environmental damage. But without these pioneers, the US would not now be self-sufficient in energy once more and the oil price would not be in freefall.

2. Every well is different. Third Energy UK Gas’s proposed operation at Kirby Misperton (KM8) will be fairly uncontroversial, inasmuch as the site has been active for 20 years. The concrete “pad” on which operations will take place is in a discreet location and surrounded by trees. Also, traffic movements will be modest thanks to existing underground pipelines to and from the Knapton Generating Station. The compensation on offer to the community of £100,000 up front plus 1% of gross revenues (2/3rds to the local community and 1/3rd to the Council, which will also keep the business rates) seems fair and reasonable. Elsewhere, the geology of our part of North Yorkshire is complex, with substantial deposits of sandstone making extraction fairly challenging. This will mean an active campaign of exploration if the potential here is to be realised and every project will vary. As in the North Sea, the falling oil price will impact on the viability of certain operations.

3. Assuming that the various regulatory agencies can ensure the safety of the underground operations, we are then left with the consequences of above ground activity, in particular overground pipelines, interference in farming operations, traffic movement, the fear of falling property values and an industrialised countryside. Here it is significant that Ineos, which aims to become “the biggest player in the UK shale gas industry” is offering as much as 6% of gross revenues to those affected by its plans for Scotland’s Midland Valley, divided between 4% for property owners and 2% for community projects. The reason for this unprecedented generosity is almost certainly to ensure security of gas supply to its Grangemouth power station and the offer may well make the project uneconomic. However, the commitment will certainly ensure support for its planned overground operations as well as its work underground.

To summarise, therefore, fuel poverty and energy shortages are a looming threat. Shale gas reserves should be seen as a blessing if only because, as in the US, they will have the effect of bringing down energy costs. But their extraction needs to be done in a way that meets the stringent requirements of our regulatory bodies, is sensitive to the specific circumstances of each project and is of positive benefit to Thirsk and Malton, rather than the opposite. With common sense on all sides, it should be perfectly possible to achieve this, case by case and in consultation with those directly affected.

Until next Tuesday!
Toby

 

Toby on Tuesday

 ‘I have a cunning plan….’

 

Devotees of the classic “Blackadder” television series will never forget the first episode of Series 3 when Rowan Atkinson’s Edmund Blackadder became involved in electoral politics. In this, Blackadder, on behalf of Hugh Laurie’s Prince Regent, tries to get Tony Robinson’s Baldrick elected to Parliament for the rotten borough of Dunny-on-the-Wold. Now, as Wikipedia tells us, “A rotten or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency…in existence prior to the Reform Act 1832 which had a very small electorate and could be used…to gain undue and unrepresentative influence.” Blackadder’s cunning plan was to get Baldrick to vote as an MP for more funds for the spendthrift Prince Regent – he would be his “rotten candidate for a rotten borough!”

The truth is that rotten or pocket boroughs did not cease to exist at the Reform Act of 1832. Many Labour-held seats operate like this and, here in Thirsk and Malton, our own Conservative Association is guilty of treating the constituency in precisely the same way. Although we differ strongly on the EU, of which she has always been a strong advocate and I have been a vigorous opponent, Anne McIntosh has for many years been an exemplary Member of Parliament. She is an outstanding chair of the Rural Affairs Select Committee, campaigning on two of the great issues of our time, food security and flood defences. Both of these causes have been shamefully neglected by our metropolitan-driven Government, but she has served Thirsk and Malton superbly on both of these. She also had the courage to vote against the Government on the divisive and vexed issue of same-sex marriage.

Her reward for all of this has been her humiliating ejection by the Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association, presumably because she refused to dance to its officers’ tune. Of course, the sensible and democratic solution would have been to put her case to an “Open Primary”, which every voter in the constituency would have been able to attend. Douglas Carswell, one of our new MP’s, has long been the great advocate of Open Primaries and indeed this course was even recommended by Conservative Party headquarters. But the local Conservative Association resisted this solution and instead treated Thirsk and Malton as its own Dunny-on-the-Wold. Having insulted an exceptional Member of Parliament, they used a closed meeting to select as her replacement a candidate with no political record at all other than pulling out of a constituency in West Yorkshire shortly before the last General Election. She very reasonably requested an Open Primary.

It is for others to decide whether the new Conservative candidate is a “rotten candidate for a rotten borough”, but what is the case is that the refusal to offer Anne Mcintosh the chance to put her case before an Open Primary, with all of her constituents having the right to attend, in favour of a closed meeting of Conservative activists has been profoundly anti-democratic. One of our few respected and capable Members of Parliament has been gratuitously insulted, her career terminated and the political process here degraded. Thirsk and Malton is not Dunny-on-the-Wold and next May voters will have their chance to pass judgment on this whole sorry saga.

Until next week!
Toby