Romsey Advertiser 16 March 2007

Written by Sandra Gidley MP on Sat 17th Mar 2007

When I was knocking on doors last weekend I was struck by a comment from the gentleman who said that most people didn't worry too much about national policy and were more concerned about what was going on in their immediate neighbourhood.

Whilst this is true to a certain extent I know for certain that there are many others who take a close interest in national policies and often write to give me their views. This is really welcome but it is always difficult to gauge how widespread some of these opinions are - especially when you consider that more people write to their MP if they are unhappy about something.

At Westminster we can get very excited about policy. There was great excitement when we recently voted to abolish the House of Lords in its current form and replace it with a predominately or wholly elected second chamber. Excitement and three line whips a-plenty but the post bag on this issue has been almost non existent apart from a small number of communications suggesting that the protected places for bishops are abolished.

The most excitement this week has centred around "green" policy. Green issues were a major theme of our last manifesto and also the subject of a major debate at last Autumn's Party Conference when we announced our Green Tax Switch. Because Green is the new and trendy colour we have promoted the green aspects of the changes and rather neglected to mention that one of the underlying principle is a 2p reduction in the basic rate of income tax. I have a feeling that that part of the policy will prove a vote winner for many people.

This week a Climate Change Bill has been launched and the Conservatives have launched a set of green policies. It is flattering to note that they have decided to adopt some of our long standing policies. One example is the proposal to tax the airplane and not the individual passenger. This incentivises airlines to fill the flights and reduce the number of half empty ones. I hope that David Cameron's flight was full when he travelled to Iceland for one of his photo opportunities!

What is interesting to me is to observe how many members of the public claim to be green but do not want to change their lifestyle. This is understandable and there should not be a hair shirt attitude to environmentalism. Many say they would like to use public transport. I use public transport in London but struggle in the constituency as, for example, there is no bus from Bassett to Barton Stacey. To move towards a greener future there has to be investment in, and development of, a more comprehensive public transport system. Eighteen years of Conservative Government presided over the privatisation of bus and rail services and we live with the consequences today. How they plan to reverse their earlier damage is something they are being very quiet about.

Published with kind permission of Romsey Advertiser