Mather nails imperative for Scottish representation at Copenhagen
published this on 9:56 am, Saturday, 24th October, 2009Climate Change| Community News| Politics | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
Argyll’s MSP, Jim Mather, takes the failure of Labour MPs at Westminster to back ambitious climate change targets as further proof of the absolute need for Scotland to be represented at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference from 7th-18th December.
With energy as a part of his ministerial brief, Mr Mather has climate change concerns set deep in his responsibilities.
He says: ‘While disappointed that Labour MPs have this week failed to back ambitious climate change target proposals at Westminster, I suggest that this reinforces the relevance of demands from my colleagues there that Scotland should be represented at the top table in Europe discussing these crucial matters.
‘We have led the world in framing legislation to tackle climate change. Our Bill sets the benchmark and is achievable but we really do need international agreements to be established so that targets are set out on an credible basis.
‘Because of this it is more essential than ever that a Scottish Minister be invited to join the UK delegation to help set that agenda. We have to ensure that the pace setting legislation passed by the Scottish parliament is not sidelined by default.
”The Copenhagen meeting is the world’s chance to make the right decision and we have a place to play in that. We should not be denied the opportunity to participate because of political posturing at Westminster’.
In yet another development underlining the specific condition of Scotland and the difficulty of the UK attempting to live by a one-size-fits-all rubric, the Scots historian Air Alistair Horne told yesterday’s BBC Today programme that it is ‘absolutely crazy’ for the UK to operate in a different time zone form the rest of central Europe.
His thesis was that the need for the UK to be governed by British Summer Time (BST) is driven by Scotland’s northerliness, with scant daylight hours in winter. While recognising that this does present problems for Scotland, he said that the rest of the UK should not lose an hour of evening daylight ‘just because Scottish farmers do not want to milk in the dark’.
His recommendation was that Scotland should be cut loose to make its own decisions on this (something the SNP would hardly resist), having what he described as ‘its own tundra time’ while the rest of the UK would be free to adopt a more appropriate time zone.
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October 24th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
There is not a snowball’s chance in hell of the SNP being invited to sit down at the Copenhagen meeting. Labour’s shame just goes on and on as they speak a good game but sure don’t play it.
The SNP’s Scottish energy program under the trustful stewardship of Jim Mather and the benchmark targets are a huge embarrassment for the Westminster goverment which has dragged its feet as people die around the world as a direct result of the UK’s emissions.
Every where I turn today, there is another reason for an independent Scotland with the powers to resolve its own interests. What needs to happen for the Scots to see we are being shafted from every quarter by a dis-interested, dis-functional and corrupt Westminster. We need no part of this nonsense, Scotland has bigger fish to fry if we could catch them. (Dig at another meeting where Labour snubbed the SNP and Scotland interests recently).