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An exceptionally interesting meeting: two groups working together, a brain-stretching topic, and seeing a politician working and appearing disconcertingly frank (at one point saying to an assistant “OK, I don’t know what you are talking about!” Would that more parliamentarians were as honest.
When we rapidly hit a question from him we couldn’t ask his fingers started dancing and he was ringing round Bruxelles (for answers). He was favourably impressed when he saw the business endorsement for regulation- if the NFU in Scotland and Paul Polman CEO of Unilever are in favour he felt it must merit consideration. However he overtly turned to a LD MEP colleague Sharon Bowles who is giving a lead and working with Olle Schmidt (a Swedish Liberal MEP) for the party line and the guidance emailed him consisted of both WDM’s report and a Barclay’s Capital document Commodity Cross Currents: Commodity regulation: Uncertainty rules.
CD said he hadn’t been lobbied by anyone else but it seemed to me that there is real antipathy to the clarity of “Limits” and a preference for “Controls”. This is reflected in his comment: “The market on the whole is better that the alternative- governments are remarkably bad at trying to fix things and second guess the laws of supply and demand. But the markets need to be regulated.”
As the EP works with consensus rather than tit-for-tat point-scoring with which we are so familiar he is not likely to object to a policy simply because another group supports it. Although CD makes no bones about being Liberal in outlook the EU’s Precautionary principle could be important here. If there is a risk of harm being done, the safer path should be followed.
The EU can be depicted as a rich (man’s) club and it certainly has a number of problems on its plate. Effective regulation to limit the speculation which harms its citizens, farmers, and producers as well as the poorer billions who feel the swings of unbridled uncertainty is a worthy cause and just the sort of area where selfish sovereign governments with limited vision drag their feet. This is an area where his EP group can “punch above their weight” for the poor rather than side with laissez-faire irresponsibility. I hope they do!
CD is the EU lead on Carbon Capture and Storage and spoke of the need for this as a stop gap in a real world where China et al are developing dirty coal power generation. He’s also not been afraid to stick his neck out with the domestic party on Tar Sands- see http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/damian-carrington-blog/2011/dec/06/oil-sands-tar-canada-uk-fuel or http://www.libdemvoice.org/chris-davies-mep-writes-slipping-deeper-into-the-tar-sands-26115.html.
Good luck this evening – I work in Bromley Town Centre & I am interested to hear of the new group.
Hi Gill,
Thanks for the support.
We’d love to see you at one of our meetings. Feel free to pop along. No obligation to join, we can just have a drink and a chat.
Alternatively, drop me an email at the @hotmail:disqus address above and I can try and answer any questions you have about us and what we’re planning.
Barry
Hi to all – South Lakeland WDM group is alive and well and would be delighted to get contact from anyone in the area interested in keeping the WDM message in the public eye in Kendal and surrounding areas. We have just decided to change our meeting day to the 3rd Thursday of the month, still in the Castle St Comunity Centre.
Andy Mason has agreed to be chair, as we have been “chairless” for a few years.
I hope we can get our centrally provided website up and running soon – otherwise the group contact is andyandmaggie@talktalk.net