Gedling Climate Change Group – Climate and Nature Hustings 2024 are being held at St James Church Centre, Marshall Hill Drive, NG3 6FY on Monday 17th June 19:00 – 21:00. We hope you can come in person but the session will be live streamed and recorded.
thank you for coming by the way in in numbers I’ll try to I don’t know chicken wi chicken WI okay Patrick yeah yeah well welcome everybody to this hustings event uh it’s strictly an event about climate and nature so I’m afraid I’ll have to be quite firm with people who want to talk about Gaza or vaccinations or brexit or it’s climate and nature we’ll have five formal questions uh two on climate two on nature and one on another subject which is tying the two together uh and each of the candidates will be able to make their comments uh as we go we won’t be having a comfort break so if you need to make yourself comfortable then please please go whenever and uh try try not to uh disrupt everything as you go and as you come back if you do need the toilet uh they’re in the uh the lobby as you came in and looking from this direction they’re on the right hand side there’s one door into the area there’s an accessible toilet and there’s a male and a female toilets fire exits we’re not expecting any kind of fire alarm tonight um but you can see there’s a fire exit over there there’s one there which will take you straight out and if it’s safe uh you go out through the way that you came in okay just a technical thing about uh this kind of event in accordance with the guidance of the Electoral commission this is a non selective hustings that means that impartiality will be shown to the candidates we have five of the possible six candidates uh it’s not proved possible to uh contact the final one an independent candidate because she simply didn’t provide us with any contact details so bestl plans I’m very glad that we’ve managed to assemble the the five main candidates for you they will introduce themselves to you uh shortly what we’re looking at tonight is accountability honesty and leip and there’re the the qualities that we’re trying to assess accountability the fact that they’re here to answer questions and to uh tell you how they feel and or maybe how their parties feel uh makes them accountable I hope that they will all take on board the honesty leadership includes the uh the quality of listening actively to what other people are saying and not butting in on the allal time uh if there’s any butting in to be done it’ll have to be me I’m afraid okay we respect that each candidate’s right to speak and be heard will be given and in due course we’ll also be listening to what people in the audience have to say Okay um we’re live streaming uh there’s a camera over there we’re live streaming on the gedling climate change group Facebook page we’ve organized this event in association with Nots Wildlife trust unfortunately uh Erin mcade from the wildlife trust who was going to be taking half of the questions sharing half of the questions um has become ill and is unable to attend tonight uh so you’ll have to listen to the sound of me droning on all night um okay uh that I think is that from me we have a a very short video which I hope you will find interesting it’s um we don’t have a very short video oh that’s a shame it was going to be 1 minute and 15 seconds Patrick we don’t no sorry can’t get it working with it’s a shame uh David aten explaining what the world is coming to um right no further Ado we will listen to the candidates uh for uh one minute each to make an introductory statement and we’ll take them in the order that they sitting from your left to your right apart from Kathy who’s the time ke and she has a very loud Bell there as you can see and if people look as though they’re overrunning she will silence them with the Bell on my behalf okay when when we come to the first question after then uh each candidate will have two minutes to answer that question and we will take them in a different order uh we will start with Tom Randall Michael Simon Christie Dominic Barry and then Tad Jones and we will rotate so that no individual has to answer first or answer last every time we’re rotating shall we do it t one minute please yeah uh good evening my name is Tad Jones I’m standing for the liberal Democrats I live in Red Hill I was born in Nottingham uh went away to UNI uh did a PhD in Biochemistry I think my um my background ins has kind of kind of got me a bit interested in in climate change and and other environmental uh issues um it’s one of those things I think that um in politics we do have we need a range of voices I think um having a bit more of a science uh background in Parliament would be a good thing so that’s my kind of uh unique pitch um and yeah thanks for coming well good evening everyone thank you all for coming this evening um and thank you B their team for um setting up today um I think gedling we are in a fantastic position living between a major city of one of the best cities in and also rolling Countryside and as your Member of Parliament over the last four years I’ve tried to stand up for what’s special about gedling standing up for our green spaces but also working with agencies and individuals on some of the problems we face like flooding an issue that reminds us that some of the local problems that we Face need National and international Solutions as a conservative I’m proud that the conservative government’s been the first to legislate for net Zer by 2050 and that Britain has been one of the fastest country the fastest country in the G7 to cut emiss 15 seconds left but we have to go forward and in the next Parliament um whoever is in government um we need to make sure that we have an affordable and pragmatic path to Net Zero and leave the environment in a better State uh for future generations and if I’m reelected as your Member of Parliament that is what I will try to do thank you Micha thank you Bob uh Michael Payne proudly standing to be all Member of Parliament for my home Community here in gedling and let me start by saying a huge thank you to Bob and to Erin in Nottinghamshire Wildlife trust and gedling uh climate change group who for decades have been leading the way on the two biggest issues facing not only our community our country but also our planet it’s quite right that we have a specific hustings tonight on the biggest challenge facing our planet and you can be assured that as your labor Member of Parliament should I be elected on the fourth July I will be a powerful advocate for our green spaces for nature recovery for nature positive housing to make sure that we have a planet that once again is inhabitable for future Generations it has to be wrong that we’ve allowed 440 uh four water spills of raw sewage into our waterways in gedling we need to turn a page on climate denial and climate delayers we’ve seen over the last 14 years and once again start leading the way in terms of challenging the climate emergency the biggest crisis facing our planet thank you Simon Christie uh hi everybody uh my name is Simon Christie I’m a farmer from hawton near southwell um a lot of you will know of hawton because it’s uh the site of the sustain hon Winden turbine uh which is actually on our farm so that was put up in 2008 it’s an amazing scheme it creates superb profit for the Village um wonderful um you know if you want LED light bulbs the turbine pays electric uh bike the turbine pays have a look at sustainable Hawtin on your phones if you get chaned it’s a superb scheme um that’s the good news the bad news is I was the sprayer operator on the farm for 35 years so if you want to ask me about agrochemicals and what they do and how you abuse use them and how to use them correctly I’m probably the right person to okay thank you s d well evening all I’m Dom brry I’ll be your green Party candidate for gedling um in the theme of honesty um and openness I want to point out that I am not from gedling um I come from Bill stop so that’s newk where you might know it um but I mean that I’m not from gedling but that’s not from a lack of Ching I me and my partner have tried to move to ging but for because of a certain uh government um and had the housing crisis we’ve been unable to and I mean that’s not the only crisis we’ve had to face is the the uh sorry get all flustered um other crisis we’ve got is obviously the climate crisis um that’s why you’re all here I don’t think you guys need the hard sale in why it’s important seconds oh god um and rush through rush through rush through and main part is backsliding um green party not happy with it [Applause] boom thank you that brings us to the first question and uh it’s a nature question how would you or your party ensure that pressure to build more houses doesn’t lead to the loss of natural habitat or limit people’s access to Nature did everybody get that Y and we’ll start with Tom please well I think that there’s there’s always a tension isn’t there I think between the demand for housing um and also where it builds and this is where this is where some really strong views locally uh which I know you know if you look at places like State Bol Burton Joyce um and other places around the constituency where um you know there is there is that great prep there is that great desire try to maintain the identity of where we live and the the on the edge of the connation I think there are a number of issues that we can do to uh to try to to to try and strike that right balance um one of them is to have a Brownfield approach Brownfield first approach to building to try and do more to uh to to try and make sure that we’re optimizing our Brownfield spaces uh to make sure that we’re building on those first rather than on the Green Belt um I think there is is a good case for better higher density housing um so that we’ve got more of those in uh in place so it’s a more effective way of building um and I think there’s a Bigg escap for doing that um it is this is um I think probably one of the biggest uh issues that I’ve sort of come across in my inbox particularly in those issues for those people who are living on the edge of on the edge of town um and the conservative Manifesto does commit to making sure that people are within a 50-minute walk of Nature and I think that is something that we probably already have here um in gley um but it is something that we do need to maintain and has to be a top priority okay thank you I think in the end you have to have a member of parliament who is not only willing to speak warm words but actually go Parliament the right way on these issues and in the last few years I’m afraid to say we’ve had central government that’s imposed National targets from Westminster and whiteall and then had a number of MPS coming back to their constituency claiming that they’re in defense of protecting green spaces when in actual fact it’s their own National planning policy framework that has driven housing towards the edge of the urban area and the loss of Green Space you’re going to hear a lot of warm words from people tonight over climate uh and nature I would ask you to judge us on our actions we sit a few hundred yards from 580 acres worth of Country Park which I’m proud to have delivered as Deputy leader of gedling burough Council alongside the local community a former coldfield now turned into a green space with huge biodiversity one of the largest solar farms uh in the region that’s delivering uh energy security for thousands of houses so you don’t just need warm words from A Member of Parliament you need a MP who is going to argue for these policies and a government that’s going to act and this week we’ve just set out in our Manifesto the labor party a very clear plan around nature recovery positive house building that’s in the interests uh of Nature and crucially we have a 6 billion pound plan to finally turn a page on the fact that there are far too many people living in this country with drafty cold homes we have people literally losing their hes lives in poor quality housing with a green investment energy plan uh to make sure that we get to clean energy by 2030 that is World leading spending more money than even the president of the United States is spending in his inflation uh reduction act but you critically need a member of parliament who will argue yes locally to protect our green spaces in relation to house building but also so vote the right way when you go down to the house of Parliament and you have this word from me not only will I argue from you for you here in this this constituency should the labor party be fortunate enough to form the next government Fourth of July I will be pushing the next Labor government every inch and every mile on these issues because I know just how important they are to people who live here in my home community in [Music] ging Simon Christie um well the way I would approach the the the offset of uh the loss of any green space uh with housing which isn’t on a Brownfield site is um as most people probably understand when a developer um develops uh Properties or or housing in in large numbers there is a local tax that’s imposed which is contributes towards the schools and the roads and and various infrastructure projects now what I think is a better idea is to reduce the amount of the tax that’s levied that goes to those things which um very very aable but I think there should be more uh of the tax offset to replace one acre of building land with five acres of um Green Space somewhere else and and literally buy the Green Space if I cut a tree down on my farm or a tree falls down I’ve always had a policy of I plant five trees for every one that I cut down um that’s what I do with the local tax on on uh building is create green spaces somewhere else another thing that I would do which is a superb thing that happened in southw a developer came in probably 10 years ago and tried to convert the old Minster School into housing it’s 100 yards from the Minster a local businessman came in he bought the side and turned it into a green space now in my opinion people that do that sort of thing should get huge tax breaks and there should be an incentive for people who are prepared to invest in that type of thing they get a tax break for doing it because it’s if you drive through southwell now it’s amazing you’ve got the minister five acres of Green Space right up against the minister that 10 years ago if that person hadn’t stepped in would probably have I’m not saying you don’t need 200 hous thank you Dom so we have something called the right homes right place price Charter which vaguely aims to make sure we have while we solve at least attempt to solve the housing crisis and make sure everyone has amenities close by we all have access to um one of the main goals in this is to kind of reduce uh fuel poverty which is the pover we experience when we have to travel miles to get places with a car um and so that means we have um more green spaces and we’re trying to reinhabit um Brown and gray belt buildings um and try to uh well I think this isn’t in the green party Manifesto but this is my own personal spice is um Mid risers I think mid risers are they’re underutilized in the um there a bureaucratic nightmare apparently to built and I think they’re quite useful in that but there’s a housing crisis going on we need to preserve our Green Space mid Rises we don’t need to build massive skyscrapers and turn everything into a massive urb BR but mid Rises um and another thing is we promised at cop 15 in 2022 that we’d devote 30% of our land to the Sea and nature um and land uh just nature land iny um at the moment that stands at 5% which isn’t good enough um yeah okay thank you Tad um so uh I think it’s relatively straightforward I think um in the sense that we do we can build on Brownfield as other people have said and we can build kind of more is it the low rise the medium rise slightly higher density housing I think we need to get slightly more used to not having a house and garden each you know these things in in a lot of cities you on holiday Paris Barcelona um and London there are areas which are really nice very expensive to live in and they are Apartments you know five story buildings um so you can you know you can build housing which is attractive um and relatively high density um you also need to put uh unused houses back into a cc ation uh when the livs were in Coalition we put 70,000 empty houses back into circulation as well as building affordable homes um and we’ve got some of the oldest housing stock in Europe so there is an opportunity there to rebuild houses I think so we’re not building on the green land on Green Belt we’re building rebuilding houses at high density um to better standards zero carbon solar panels um and also I think the one of the Manifesto uh commitments from the the Dems is to uh not reduce biodiversity by when you have a development but it to increase it so Swift boxes and and other things so it is possible to have attractive uh new build houses um insulated environmentally friendly and that’s the way we need to go I think thank you you ask the C to speak up did you all get that no it’s difficult to hear the candidates at the back so a bit of would be very welcome okay um your turn take I think um probably 10 minutes of uh comments from the floor if anybody has a comment could you come forward please I can project The Voice quite well so I’m fine I don’t know whether the mic will pick you are yeah so my my question is um Net Zero brilliant idea um but for most of the average working population with families and kids there’s a cost to that and with the cost we got at the moment how do we maintain the balance between achieving Net Zero but also making sure it’s affordable for families so the question is how do we maintain the balance between achieving Net Zero and making sure that it’s affordable for families any any comment I’m I’m happy to comment yes please if I stand up I might be able to project better um the way I was sort of looking at the uh The Net Zero um targets and the way it’s been rolled out the cynical side of me thinks um it was the right thing to say to do at the time and a phenomenal vote winner I 100% believe in the aim but I think it’s it’s similar to when you you have the builders in and you want to repair your house you say I want it done by Christmas and then you have the painters and the carpet people there on Christmas Eve um because the target’s unrealistic I think the the worry is that because the target was set to ambitious in in a time scale it might end up going the way of hs2 and the gloss will be taken off it I’m sorry but I’m more interested in the cost implications towards achiev Z on families well that’s exactly what I’m saying because if you think about it um everybody has decided and I have an electric car everybody’s decided that you have to have an electric car it’s the way to go they’re facing electric cars sorry normal cars out in a very very short period of time now there will be people who bought electric cars recently and they’ll have lost 10 15 20,000 on the capital value of that car now if it hadn’t been rolled out so quickly and government have thought more care carefully about the implications of what they’re saying and you know people with very good intentions um are going out to do these things because you know we well I don’t know whether we all do believe in it but I do because you know I’ve done things that prove it again I appreciate that I really do um but I want to know how you if you’re our MP for deedly are going to fight to make sure that it’s affordable moving to next Z for young and and I’m not hearing that I’m just hearing about your personal beliefs and thoughts I want to know what you’re going to do to stick up to the people of gley to make sure energy bills are going to be affordable moving towards next Z well if if we were in in government one of the main things that we’re aiming at is now reform will tell you they’re against Net Zero now my personal position I’ve outlined uh but for instance the wind turbine we we’ve got on our farm have no government subsidy it brings uh money into the community um subsidized uh electricity but when I say subsidized it’s subsidized because the people own the turbine the way to get money into people’s pockets in gedling is to take the money from the huge electricity companies that are making ridiculous profits on frightening people to death and take that money and put it into the pockets of the people in ging and then no raise the cost of the electricity Supply sorry no raise the cost of the electricity Supply so it still doesn’t work I’ll give someone else the opportunity to ask the question yeah well let’s see if other candidates wish to respond Michael thank you for the question uh Darren and of course the cost of living is a huge issue for people here in gedling i’ just challenge the premise I think we’ve turned a page on the argument that it’s now a choice between affordability security or the climate uh your Renewables are now cheaper we’ve seen through Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that actually we need energy Security in this country and we’ve also seen that we absolutely have got to turn the page on the old uh use of fossil fuels which is why the next Labor government has made it clear it will not issue any new licenses for oil or gas fields and I would challenge Tom and the uh current government because you’re either going to end up with a government orative government to meet that meet that commitment and crucial commitment that uh that labor is making around the creation of Great British energy our own publicly owned Energy company that will create clean energy from Renewables and nuclear will bring down people’s bills by 300 pound energy bills directly addressing your point around the cost uh of living we had to scale back some of our ambition uh after the commitment we’ve made in 2021 and I’ll take that issue on head on tonight the reason we have to scale back our ambition and I’m as disappointed as anybody in this room around that is because of the catastrophic many budget that LZ truss presided over while she was prime minister and you certainly don’t save people money in their bills as families here in gedling by playing faster the country’s finances in the way that L trust did when she was prime minister and we’ve seen it again in the conservative Manifesto uh this week making unfunded commitments that will cost families here uh thousands of pounds each year in terms of their bills with labor you’ll get great bushes energy 10 of there are 10 leaders in clean power around the world nine of them have their own publicly funded Energy company one doesn’t Great Britain and if you elect a labor government on the 4th of July we will put that right 44% of offshore energy in this country is owned by Foreign States we need to turn a page on that we need affordability in terms of people’s energy bills £300 reduction uh with labor and great vicious energy we need to turn a page in terms of energy security the conservative government shut the gas uh storage facility just off the East Coast in this country in 20177 leaving us wide open to what happened with Putin and Ukraine so I’m afraid to say we cannot sh responsibility on this issue on the 18th of November and I’ll finish on this point the gedling climate change group met at gedling and as Deputy leader of the council I was very proud to host them and they produced an absolutely outstanding report a climate convention report which I have a copy of here tonight on the self same day they met on the 18th of November 2023 something else happened the planet this planet we live on was crying out and telling us that we have to act for the first time in our history energy levels temperature in this planet Rose 2 degrees above pre-industrialized asan the clock is ticking down down time is running out we finally need to elect a government that will lead the world once again on climate change and on tackling the climate emergency the last Labor government LED not by the example of our power but by the power of our example when we first introduced climate change legislation in 2008 and if you elect me as your labor mp on the 4th of July and K starm of your as your prime minister once again this country will start leading on the biggest issue facing our country and our planet Tom Randall well just just just to pick up on on on on the point on which I was challenged um of course Net Zero doesn’t mean zero fossil fuels um and I just think in this of energy it is important uh that we do have sck Supply uh and I worry that shutting down oil and gas licenses in Britain would put at risk 200,000 jobs and billions of pounds of of tax revenue um as well as uh endanger our own energy Security in the face of foreign threats um we have had already had of course um a labor run Energy company in Robin Hood energy um and uh which went B to the tune of40 million so I I I I I caution you to uh to let uh to let labor run RIT over the whole country on on energy but to return to the original question which I think we may have drifted from in terms of the cost of living look I think targets and the um Simon was talking about targets earlier um you know targets have to be challenged um but they have to be achievable and I think if you take for example Motorcars uh for example which is the the the example that was being discussed um you know most you the price of car is is high at the moment um it’s much higher than a than an internal combustion engine car um the price is coming down which is great progress is being made um in 2006 Hollywood produced a film called who killed the electric car uh nowadays it’s very common to see a Tesla being driven uh on on the streets even even reformed candidates are driving electric cars you know so um the the you know it’s a great progress being made but it has to be made in Step I think with cost of living with the progress that’s being made and that means that if the state for phasing out into internal combustion engines needs to be shifted I think that’s a very pragmatic step to achieve an overall goal particularly when we are ahead of of reducing our um uh Net Zero our carbon emissions but does it in a way which works with the grain of society and I think that is an important General aim of what we need to do when um when achieving these goals thank you Tom right let’s move on a question on climate mitigation the majority of homes are poorly insulated meaning higher carbon emissions and higher bills how would you help councils tackle this issue Michael uh to go first please I mean we were one of the first councils in the country uh and I’m proud to be deput leader of ging burough Council that put solar panels on top of its own Council as we were leading the way on this issue but I am also not naive enough to stand here and say that local actions are not enough you need a government that will you need an MP that will Advocate and you need a world that will wake up uh to this issue uh councils need to go uh further but let’s also be clear about this councils have been completely denuded of funding to tackle these issues and I just politely to point out to Tom that not withstanding the mistakes that were made at Nottingham City Council around Robin Hood energy you first have to ask yourself the question whilst why a labor Council in this country was having to create an energy company to try and once and uh for all bring down the bills of people uh in their own area the reason they were have to do to do that is because families over the last 14 years be choosing between Heating and eating as a direct result of decisions taken by your government and votes you’ve cast over the last 14 uh years while you’ve been in government we’ve won clear action uh two clear actions on this the creation of great bous energy a renewable energy company that will create our own energy reducing people’s bills by £300 giving us energy security and reducing our carbon uh emissions which are absolutely critical so it speaks to the three issues that I talked about but also A6 billion pound investment in tackling the insulation and quality of housing that I talked about earlier that would help 19 million homes every single week as a local counselor I am written to by families who have issues with condensation in their housing mold in their housing unsuitable quality of Housing and in the six richest countri in the world that is a crying shame and if we are not in politics to make sure that people have a decent roof over their head afford to feed their children before they go to school uh in the morning and that they’ve got a decent quality of living we shouldn’t be in the business of politics at all and I’m afraid to say in a few short days time in the general election there either is going to be rishy shat as prime minister or k starm as prime minister Tom Randall as your MP or Michael Payne is your MP and you’ve heard tonight from Tom there’s a Clear Choice around climate and the climate emergency when it comes to the vote on the 4th of [Applause] July um so my my perception of I think the question was about um heat retention and and saving energy um two basic aspects it’s not rocket science insulation of home should be mandatory um big if you don’t insulate home if you can’t afford it there should be uh suitable money Prov provided by central government so that every single home in the United Kingdom is fully insulated in a in a proper way in the way that a house would be insulated in Sweden or Norway or Finland number one uh insulation because it’s pointless creating green energy at one end and then put it through a house and it disappears through the roof because you you’re completely avoiding the effort number one get the whole country properly insulated then put government money sensibly into initiatives that create green energy now an example of how we do it was uh eight years ago there were pellet boiler grants available so I went I bought the pellet boiler for The Farmhouse um at the time when they first brought it out there’ be a meter provided in your home and the grant money that you got back was relative to how the meter went round I signed up I bought the boiler perfectly sensible idea but the way the conservative government rolled it out announced something then think how to implement it later they abandoned the um you got 15 seconds the meter and put it on a on a monthly sorry on a yearly tariff now I’m embarrassed how much money that made for me it was ridiculous and it brought down the Northern Ireland government the same problem so insulation sensible policies um and look after the money and don’t throw it down stupid abue thank you it’s a pretty short and simple one I think um we have the worst insulated homes in Europe and that’s not just the legacy of the conservative party Legacy of the labor play as well and what we plan to do is to invest 29 billion into insulating um and bringing everything up to EPCC um so that’s 12 billion to retrofit um social housing and 17 to retrofit private to a similar standard and then an additional 4 billion to uh fit public buildings it’s is fairly simple we just need to invest actually invest into uh insulating our homes yeah thank you thank you [Applause] thank you okay I hope everyone can hear me a bit better um so I’m afraid I’m going to be a little bit repetitive in that liberal Democrat policy is to uh provide insulation to low-income homes so we’re kind of targeting those who maybe can’t afford to do it themselves and we’re also going to make uh heat PS available to the same same cohort um and I think it’s particularly important because we do have problem as Michael said uh with mold and there have been people who have died from uh respiratory related illnesses so we do have to be a little bit more proactive in that um we’ also mandate that landlords because a lot of uh low-income households will be in rented accommodation uh we do have to mandate that landlords bring up their their housing spec to EPCC um and you know hopefully that will make some Headway into the problem I think I’ve answer the question you well I think we have to take stock of a lot we have made a lot of progress recently if you if anyone’s ever been to the gedling green development um just off lamby Lane in Kling there some really high-tech Innovative homes there um which are which are sort of uh which are sort leading the way in terms of environmental standards the way in which we build our homes is getting better which I think is something we can be proud of um in 2010 one in seven homes were in band C and that’s up to about half so so some progress some good very good progress has been made um the conservative Manifesto promises to invest six billion pounds in Energy Efficiency over the next three three years and to fund an Energy Efficiency vouch scheme to households in England to improve the inst installation of Energy Efficiency measures and I think the other panelists have said I mean that’s right you know there is a lot that can be done to improve insulation uh put on solar panels to try and make sure that um you know the heat that is being generated is being retained uh for as long as possible I think sort of just slightly sort of broadening that out as well there is possibly and I don’t know whether we’ll come on to this in in future questions but some there are some issues around certainly like on planning for instance with onshore wind uh where they become very sort of controversial planning issues where if someone wants to build something that it’s going to generate onore wind you know whe whether that’s acceptable to the local community or not and there’s been some discussion about whether you may able to get some sort of community buy in for that for um um in order to um you know for for local Energy discounts to kind of offset the cost of you know to to B to get sort of more sort of local buying and public acceptance of it so you 15 seconds left so as well as the sort of the the the bread and butter stuff that can be done I there may be also scope for more creative thinking around that to just improve things even further okay thank you so uh questions from the Flor please yes sir uh well we’re about 40 minutes in and uh no one’s mentioned the word nuclear yet um so thought it was time someone mentioned the the nword right now nuclear is generating about 16% of our energy I just checked on the National Grid live um could each of you just clearly and succinctly say what’s your party’s policy on nuclear and right now there’s only one real nuclear development going on in this country which is hly point C I believe which is a French Chinese funded development uh Michael Payne is your Great British Energy company going to do anything about that you want to take that first Micha yeah thank you for the question Robert and good to see you um I uh uh I um I uh I did mention nuclear you I think you missed it I did mention nuclear very specif I very specifically said but just for um just for the record great vicious energy will focus on Renewables Renewables are cheaper than the current fossil fuels that we rely on we’ve got to end the licenses around oil and gas as I said it’s absolutely critical in terms of our contribution around tackling the climate emergency and nuclear will be part of it and it’s a crying shame that this conservative government hasn’t been able to build the critical infrastructure we’ve needed in terms of nuclear we need a mix in this country the situation in Ukraine the potential situ ation arising from China and Taiwan shows you that energy security is absolutely critical and there has to be a mix Renewables have to be at the Forefront of that but nuclear also has to be uh part of it um also Dom um so I disagree um I don’t think nucula has any part in the future of our country in terms of Renewables um that well like like Michael P P said um they are cheaper like actual Renewables wind air solar um they’re all cheaper now um and there’s the added um danger with nuclear and it’s fairly obvious one contamination people who live nearby nucle plants will have um risks to their health in terms of waste produced and there’s also the point that nuclear slow nuclear takes a to get up and running by the time it’s in place it’s 10 years behind uh it’s just simply not going enough sorry um so liberal Democrats are a bit skeptical of nuclear um in the future we’re hoping that tidal energy and wave energy will help us kind of bridge the gap when you know the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining um we may also be able to invest a bit more in storage so batteries um and uh green hydrogen and kind of try and make those work so we don’t have to use that nuclear power as a kind of loading for the system um I don’t think we’re quite there yet but hopefully we have got a bit of time to kind of devel these things Tom sign y okay um so the position uh that we take is um nuclear energy is with us um we get a lot of our energy from the power stations in France it comes Under the Sea we have nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom absolutely for it what I would like to see is it’s all brought back into the control of United Kingdom government or United Kingdom off operated companies the idea that something as important as nuclear safety or the Imp you know God forbid and I think it’s very important that money is spent on nuclear energy in the way that it was going to be spent on hs2 which ended up going nowhere very important do it properly get British Engineers involved all these making smaller um production use but it must come back to the control of the United Kingdom government and trusted United Kingdom companies not to be at the whim of a a government in China or Hong Kong or well France even it has to be regulated and maintained and provided by the United Kingdom thank you I short answer to your question yes um look I think you know what what nuclear offers is um you know it’s low carbon um it’s safe it is has an ability to um you know produce energy and get us moving on the next AO track I was interested to see that it features actually approvingly in the um the king climate change groups report um I’m glad to see it’s in there um the government’s committed to the small modular reactors we need to get moving on those fast I think there was a thing in the times this morning so from warning from Rolls-Royce we need to really get get ahead on that absolutely my my personal view um is that has a really important role to play uh in our Energy Future and I think it’s not only in terms of the energy security but also in price I think I’m right in saying that France was slightly cushion from the rise in gas prices because it has a greater nuclear profile in its energy Supply than Britain does for example so I think it pays multiple dividends um you know um not only sort of intrinsically good U but also can can can help sort of uh you know offset other risks as well so so definitely it does have to play I think a very important role in the future thank you did I hear there was another question yes so I’m interested in the keeping the nuclear topic uh the P view on these small nuclear reactors the small modular reactors um developed by Rolls-Royce and the like and also like know more in ging what if a developer comes around and says we want to place a small nuclear reactor in around our area what is what would the what is your what would what would your um being as an MP potential MP for this are thank you uh did everybody hear that yes oh um question was if uh he the questioner would like to know more about small modular nuclear reactors produced by Rolls-Royce and similar uh and he also wish to know what the view of each candidate would be if a developer came forward and said uh I’ve found a field in gedling burough and I’d like to stick my nuclear reactor in there okay who wants to take that first if we could be quick t sorry um so I think the the key point with the small modular ones is if you’re building lots of them then they become cheaper you know economies of scale uh which sounds great because you know that’s one of the problems with nuclear is a it’s a bigger front investment so it’s not necessarily a particularly cheap form of energy so if cost is your thing then maybe that’s a important consideration but I think we Pro proved with wind power that when you invest in uh the supply chains and and making it happen then it can be quite cheap or wind power is not expensive or not as expensive as it was so it’s it’s something to bear in mind whether we have it in gedling I don’t think we’ve got a kind of history of nuclear uh energy and ging that’s all kind of yeah on the coast isn’t it so I know there may not be that much technical expertise in nuclear Tower but I suppose that’s transportable I’m not really in favor of but um I suppose maybe it would bring jobs then it’s not all negative I was just going going to Simply say uh no we’ve got a Hardline uh Power that’s that’s all that’s it um so in reply to the gentleman I don’t think you’ve got anything to worry about because uh I I I grew up near uh near nework and it’s part of I forget what the used to call it now but there was about 15 or 20 power stations on the river Trent and the reason for that was huge flow of water because you need to cool down the generator when it’s producing electricity now that’s exactly the same with nuclear you still need to cool everything down because you’re creating electricity that’s why the big Power stations tend to be on the toast because they’ve got unlimited water SE um so I don’t think there’s enough water and gettling I’m not being flipp I’m just saying that you know a you’re not near enough to the trend where you’re close but you’re not on the trend are and B it would have to be in an area where there’s unlimited water in other words on the co so it’s a fair question but it you know having lived in the Trent Valley it’s not something you need to worry about 15s we’re we’re running quite tight to tight David think it’s lastcar St on the Rivers had to close because the water levels in the rivers were so low that they couldn’t cool the reactors so while we’re talking about nuclear power we to make sure that they’re in the right place you’re going to do it you it’s better not okay uh can I take your question uh in the next question time please okay we’re we’re running tight sorry uh another nature question despite traditionally being viewed as a green and pleasant land the UK is now the most nature depleted countries on the planet and is falling behind on meeting existing nature targets with time fast running out out how would you or your party ensure that the UK can meet both UK and international targets by 20130 and we’re taking Simon first um so this an interesting one this because I’ve got partially um a confession to made and that is uh as I said earlier uh I was the sprayer operator on our farm for 35 years so I’ve seen how the chemical industry um Works how farmers are persuaded to go down one route with chemicals and a different route with with another um so in a nutshell the thing I’ve noticed over the and I’m ashamed of it as a farm I’m ashamed of it uh so there’s basically three Pro problems you get with a a crop growing in the ground number one is weed control so major problem of growing wheat is you get black grass or or a similar wheat the chemists are absolutely brilliant Swiss chemists German chemists and they come up with chemicals that will take black grass out of the field of weed um not damaging the wheat uh but leaving the crop to grow superb chemistry however they know it’s superb chemistry and they charge the Earth for these chemicals they know the farmer has has to have them and they cost 20 30 40 50 an acre to take a weed out the second one is when the crop is growing you’ve got the head of wheat growing there a month and a half from Harvest fungal attack on the on the wheat so fungicides are the next thing that the chemist comes along and tells that you need to spend very very clever chemical 15 seconds however the one that nobody talks about are the insecticides nobody talks about them because they cost a pound an acre so what happens is the agricultural specialist tells you oh by the way while you’re spraying the fungicide put some insecticide in as well so my I would tax insecticide to a level where it was hardly ever used okay because it’s nine times out of 10 it’s unnecessary thank you well like I said in my um ill conceived first statement um 30% of land is Promised by the UK government to Nature um and well that was at cop 15 in 2022 um and we’ve only got 5% devoted to it at the moment um and so we really ought to up that up to 30% at least um and so we can have plenty of nature we also want to um to implement a right to the right to Rome so people can enjoy that in nature um similar to Scotland um and how that currently Works um yeah keep it short and sweet and thank you thank you so uh we just heard about land but what about the sea we need to do kind of similar thing for this for for our waterways and kind of protect 30% of our uh waterways lakes rivers and Coastal a areas uh we you know we’ve all heard uh recent in recent years about what companies allowing discharge into our waterways that is affecting gedling that is is happening in gedling um so we’ve introduced a sewage tax on water company profits which are quite High um I’d quite like to see us go a bit further and uh reform water companies I think we we we have got a few ideas about changing it to kind of a uh a public more of a publicly minded uh company than private Enterprise private Enterprise works you know when you’ve got a free market it’s not a free market you can’t really choose it so it is quite a bad situation at the moment um one of our policies in the manifesto um is to put a representative of a local Environmental Group on Bo V companies um so I don’t know if Bob’s interested but you that’s one for him um so yeah we we’re interested in protecting our seas uh protecting 30% of land um we we would uh introduce three National nature parks in the UK sadly non in Nottinghamshire but there are some beautiful places like in the mendips and the north Downs which are I think pencil within as an idea uh and my kind of personal favorite policy in this area is to kind of encourage local nature plans to have a kind of wild area to identify a wild area to kind of leave without any kind of um landscaping or manicuring you know 15 seconds left important for biodiversity uh it’s not just about people using spaces but to have nature there as well which you know people can enjoy thank you Tom well I said I set out in my opening remarks about trying to ensure that future Generations have a better deal of things than than the present generation there is there is a the money going into this um there is an environment plan um which is a 25-year program to deliver cleaner air and water alongside um 500 hectare wildlife habitat so the aim of that is to protect 30% of the UK’s land uh by 2030 um there’s also um a trees action plan um specifically which is being funded by 675 million from the nature for climate fund and as a statutory Target to increase increase the tree canopy in Woodland over England to 16 a half% by 2050 um so I was in doing my research this afternoon I I learned that uh there were 4.7 million trees last year which is the highest planting rate for a decade um so I’m not quite sure how they count that but uh um but but we have been making some Pro progress on that um I’ve tried to do my own little bit a couple of years ago in Colton planting trees uh in the park with the the the culton group there who are doing doing a lot of great work there to try to try and get more trees planted in an Iran Kling uh which is fantastic um so I think there has been some you there is some there is movement on this I’m not there was a reference to sort of international targets I’m not quite sure uh which which targets you have particularly in mind but I think in terms of the investment spending that’s going in this has been significant and there are there are certainly measurable outcomes and I think just looking slightly broader we were talking about our marine as well I know there’s a lot of work being done by by the government in our overseas territories because we are actually responsible for a lot of marine wildli this country not just here but in our overseas territories around the world and a great deal of work is being done to protect that as well thank you and Michael well leaving your country more nature depleted than when you found it 14 years ago as to be one of the most unforgivable acts in my view of this conservative government over the last 14 years and it’s all very well Tom talking about the marine environment it’s no good talking about planting more trees and protecting the marine environment whilst you’ve allowed 444 dumps of raw sewage into the river Trent and the used di in our community here in ging and it needs to stop it has to stop and you deserve a labor MP and the labor government who will make it stop we are very clear that we will ban bonuses for executives who dump raw sewage into our waterways including the train we will have independent monitoring rather than the government own monitoring uh outlet and we will go one step further we will have automatic fines and criminal offenses for those who continue to pour and dump raw sewage uh into our uh waterways it is a cry and shame and I’ll tell you something else that’s a crying shame environment act and there is an independent office for Environmental Protection that is a watchdog on the government on these issues and over the last 14 years this government has met four four out of 40 of the targets set in the environment act that is a cry and shame and the labor government is committed to meeting every single one of them and I promise you this you can hold me to account on that should I be fortunate enough to be elected as your MP and finally on the issue of nature we are blessed to live in one of the most beautiful parts of this country I grew up here walking down the river Trent with my granddad who’s no longer uh with us I absolutely love that part of the world to turn a page on the way that we’re treating the beautiful Wildlife that shares this planet with us let’s end Trail hunting as we’ve said let’s stop the use of snares let’s end the badger call that has been destroying one of the most beautiful species in this Great British Island that we are blessed uh to live on and let’s once again start protecting the beautiful Wildlife that we are fortunate enough to share this planet with it requires political will it requires leadership it requires sometimes doing things that are unpopular but it also requires an MP who’s willing to go down in Parliament and argue for the community uh that you are standing up to represent not just bringing back the arguments from Westminster to the constituency that you represent lady at the back thank you very much oh [Music] sorry live iners times I should have done respect saers my question is this um we’ve talked a lot about policy and holding people to account and some of the mistakes and divisions of the past on this issue anding of affordability against uh against what’s necessary to save our planet is my question to each and every one of you is the fact that we have a system which allows a panel of not one woman and nobody of a different ethnic by background than the majority means that the decision making process in terms of the environment and so much else is impoverished is the country better by rules to make sure that we have proper and equal representation as they have in some countries and those countries that have them do they do better than us everybody get that there’s a saying isn’t there uh talking about panels being male and pale and sometimes they say stale but uh I think I’m probably the only one who quite qualifies for that uh would there be an advantage in having a more divers approach and and indeed having rules to compel that uh the approach is more diverse I’m sure that there will be members of this panel who have quite strong views about that anything well I mean the green is one of the most diverse parties out there it’s unfortunate that I just happen to be a white guy but I mean this year in Nottingham our representatives are well we’ve got um two women um and someone from the lgbtq plus community and two white guys um yeah U we we we would learn a lot from having um a more diverse uh governing kind of echelon um yeah it’s a shame that it isn’t I mean I mean the load party have done fair fair Place load party in boosting their numbers but um should have been done a long time ago um right thank you anybody else anybody else um well I’m I’m I am a man and um I am I’ll do a lot of things to try and get votes but like there are limits um um but look um well in terms of terms of decision making um I think the cons and diversity of decision- making I think the conservative part has got a very proud record on that going into this election led by the first British Asian prime minister we’ve had three women Prime Ministers uh we had um many uh ethnic minority senior cabinet ministers including Chancellor and Home Secretary um so I think I think I think the answer is that we don’t need rules to in to improve diversity of our politicians I think it’s up to political parties uh to take the lead on that and I I’m very proud that the conservative party has done nobody’s mentioned PR proportional representation for diversity this is an environmental question though is it no it isn’t asking about diversity of the panel PR would solve it I don’t think PR would have solved the diversity issue of this panel no um there there was a female candidate there is a female candidate I understand but it’s proved impossible to locate her because she didn’t provide any contact details and despite the best efforts of the educa the election team at ging Boro Council we’ve still not managed to track her down in time to have her here I don’t know what that says about anything really but and anybody else no B just on Bob just if I may yes M Mich I think you’re absolutely right it’s it’s it’s not acceptable that there aren’t any women represented here tonight it’s not acceptable there aren’t any people from the black and minority ethnic uh communities um I hope to be the first openly gay uh MP elected for this constituency and I know what it’s like sometimes to have decisions made about you without you uh in the room and I think it’s incumbent on everybody irrespective of their party Politics on this panel to make sure that they are listening to and hearing all of the voices in this constituency including those people who may not have voted for you and those who may have political disagreements with you there’s too much I think division at the moment in this country there’s too much division sometimes big enough to reach out across the divide and listen to people who might have different views from you and walk uh in different um shoes to you Barbara Castle is a hero and she said that equality should not just be a privilege for everybody but a right for all uh and she was absolutely right when she said that and some of the greatest achievements in this country including people who come from across the different political aisle to me have been by women I hope Rachel Reeves is the first female Chancellor uh in a few short weeks time because I think there decisions she will make will be markedly different from some of the male chancellors that have gone uh before her I’ll finally finish by saying that in particular relation to the issues around climate change in the environment I think that the Gover climate change group set an outstanding example on the 18th of November when they came together with vention and produce their report it was an example of discursive inclusive democracy where people can come together hammer out the issues disagree respectfully and not disrespectfully and then produce a set of ideas and hold people who are in power to account and those who wish to represent you and I think there is an example to learn from from the national government around these issues this is a decades long issue if we are to tackle it it will it will stadel numerous different governments of colors and I think the principle of the climate uh assemblies that was set by the gedling climate change group in terms of their convention uh in November is a good one that we need to look at and you have my Assurance should I be fortunate enough to be elected as the Member of Parliament that I will continue to work with ging climate change group and indeed any other group who are interested in this issue uh and I will do everything I can should there be a labor government in a few short weeks time to push them to go further and faster on this issue because the clock is ticking and we owe it to our children our grandchildren to once and for all tackle this issue to make sure that we have a planet left for the future Generations who need it there’s been talk about setting up a a national Energy company and there has also been talk about nationalizing tra uh and I think we’re all in agreement that the water boards are behaving appallingly with all the uh sewage and everything else and uh bonuses to uh directors and managers dividends to shareholders and everything so my question is do any of the the parties have any plans to nationalize the water boards did everybody hear that do any of the parties have plans to nationalize the water companies so the answer is no so I’m I’m actually going to stick my head above the parit here but I’m going to be honest and up front what I’m about to say is the opinion of Simon Christie reform candidate for gedling um and I am very very very new to the job so whether this is the policy of the reform party or not I don’t no but sorry so uh I might get fired so if there was a list of um uh companies to nationalize in my opinion the number one at the top of the list are the water companies right you know I would put them streets ahead of anybody else and yes I would nationalize them so you may never see me again don’t yeah we’d also want to nationalize the war companies I mean it’s no secret that the the companies that have been acting um have not done a great job and none of our rivers are uh have a good status um so we would want to um nationalize uh all W companies and we want to um increase def’s budget to 1.5 billion yeah thank you anybody well sorry yeah we don’t have plans to nationalize the war companies at the moment uh I think it’s because it will cost a bit of money and perhaps there are better ways of getting where we need to get rather than spending a lot of money um we don’t always have a great record of running public uh companies uh the Govern you know so if we can get local uh environmental groups involved and uh good governance and proper monitoring maybe we don’t need to Michael the answer is no we’re not the manifesto doesn’t contain a commitment to nationalize the water companies but it very clearly makes a commitment to nationalize or publicly owned the railways and also Great British uh energy I’m as frustrated as you are about the water companies and I’ve set out tonight a very clear plan about what we’ll do about the egregious Act of them dumping raw sewage uh into our waterways but I’ll also just level with you should we be fortunate enough to be elected as the next government we have millions of people relying on food banks in this country we have schools that are literally crumbling we have an NHS waiting list that is now teetering on the 8 million the highest that it has ever been we have issues around the world in terms of the challenges in the Middle East and also the security issues uh in Ukraine and we have the challenges around transport as well as climate uh and the emergency and it’s no good people standing up here tonight to politicians offering you false hope they have to offer you real credible hope and I think the labor party its Manifesto has a real clear credible plan to turn a page and change this country after 14 years of Decay and decline a publicly owned Energy company publicly owned Railways a clear tackle the egregious acts around the water companies and should they not act when we’ve then taken that action yes the labor party will look at again at the action that needs to be taken but we have to be honest and level with people as well it’s no good standing up here and promising the Earth because I knock on doors day in day out and speak to people and they say to me you’re all the same we’ve lost trust in politics and the worst thing you can do to cson the trust in politics is to people give people false hope instead of real and credible hope and I think what set out in the lab labor Manifesto is real and credible we’re running tight for time but uh Tom if you just very briefly I it may be sort of superficially attractive but you know the government’s plan for water requires water companies to invest to spend 56 billion P um you know fixing fixing issues now you can nationalize water companies if you like but where’s that 56 billion pound going to come from it’s not going to come from the private sector so you know that’s going to come from the public purse and that’s going to mean that’s going to be um you know you know competition on other on other public demands um I think also and I think as as Tad alluded to um it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to get a better quality of service my understanding is that Welsh waterer is a publicly owned is in public ownership in labor run Wales where sewage over spills are higher than in England so I think the idea that you then get a better you’re going to solve the problems that you’re seeking to solve through public ownership are not necessarily not necessarily going to be the case thank you uh yeah I’ll come to you when we get the next floor questions please okay um another climate adaptation but a similar sort of issue flooding is marketly increasing in gettling as it is across the country do you see this as linked to climate change what actions would you take to help protect homes from flooding and we will take Dominic first please um well it’s kind of bizarre that I was asked that I I was just talking to my uncle who works in um like protecting against flooding earlier today um and I was asking about how to deal with ging um and he he it’s it’s fairly simple I think it’s it’s building more these things for buns I don’t know if you no it’s just big big holes in the ground really um with a tube going out to kind of regulate where water is dispersed um there might be not be as possible in more builtup parts of gedling but definitely in the more further out perhaps the flood plane areas um other than that there’s options of going upstream and rewilding some of the Upstream areas so that they can really absorb and displace and basically act as a flood plane um and as to if it’s linked to climate change I’m not a scientist um perhaps the Lial candidate can on that um but I’m not a scientist I have no idea personally um possibly I mean there’s a lot of more like extreme weather happening at the moment there’s a lot more just just horrible horrible weather um yeah prob thank you well Tad you’ve You’ just had an invitation um I to be honest I don’t know if it’s linked to climate change um I suspect that climate change may result in us getting uh wetter Winters uh and I think um I was talking to the count County Council um um officer recently and he said we’ve had one of the wetest winters and it’s meant that ground has been quite high and it’s it does sometimes cause problems with housing um one of the other problems I think we’ve had with developments is runoff uh where the drains haven’t been perhaps as uh well installed or uh looked after as as they should be um and we can sort that out that’s doesn’t strike me as in some amountain problem um more kind of French drains and and uh a little bit more investment when we’re we’re we’re uh giving the green light to these developments um it’s particularly annoying if you’ve got an established house with no problems and then you deal with something higher up the hill um which then causes problems but uh there you know we all know how Water Works and there the engineering Solutions are there I don’t see why this is a difficult thing um I think it it might well get worse than but I think we can plan for that so well I guess it certainly seems to be the case I mean if you take places like woodb for example where they’ve had occasional flooding and that flooding got worse and worse and worse and those sort of you know once in every 10y year events seem to be happening every every few months you know and that is that is and I think if you’re living on that edge of you know if you’re living on um you know not only sort of State Bol wood top of Arnold where where where you’re bordering the the countryside but also within within urban areas as well um it has become an increasing increasing issue and I it does you know it seems very plausible there would be there would be a connection um um the good news um is that the the uh the government announced a doubling of the capital funding to flood defenses in England to a record level over this period but obviously there is a massive amount of work that needs to be done on this um it’s something that I’ve been engaged with as the MP um I brought um I’ve been meeting people in in woodor uh I brought the flood minister to kic uh so that he could speak directly to local residents who have been affected by flooding uh to to see see the issues firsthand um helped set up a multi- agency event uh in both Burton Joy so that residents who can be who have been affected by flooding there could go and meet the various agencies uh um to try and get the support and help that they need um it it is going to require a bit I think probably a bigger better uh coordinated approach um and certainly speaking with residents in woodborough who have been particularly affected I think we probably do need to sort of have a rethink in terms of how some of these funding mechanis and if I’m reelected as a member of Parliament that certain is something a piece of work I’ve been working on what I have been doing as an MP is I’ve been calling for better drainage um on on building sites you know we need to make sure there’s a drainage first approach because I think we’ve seen in these new developments where um sometimes on the edge of town uh building work starts and then and then you get a lot of surface water flooding which then goes into into neighboring properties and that is that is a big issue it’s happening in lots of places um and and we need to address that thank you Michael yeah I mean anybody who ever been flooded in their home it’s absolutely devastating and I’ve visited people have being flooded in woodbr in lamley in Burton Joyce in colic uh in hotpots uh in Arnold and in gedling Village uh as well and it’s great to hear from Tom that there’s a doubling in the capital investment in terms of flood defenses what’s not great is that we’re single penny spent here in gedling constituency on that and whilst I don’t begrudge the millions of pounds that’s been spent down the road in lden very much needed down the Trent Valley why haven’t we had major investment over the last few years in wood in Lamy this is not a new problem these people have been repeatedly flooding and there is an example there is a track record under the previous constituency MP Vern and Coker there was a bond buil kic along the river Tren that protected very much of netherfield and kic under Vernon koker’s the previous labor MP who went and argued with labor ministers the Prime Minister and the chancellor there were alleviation tanks built in Arnold that stopped or mitigated the flooding along Front Street uh in Arnold under the previous labor government there was an investment at colet keys to make sure sure that uh Burton Joyce and sto bardoff weren’t flooding in the way that they were previously flooding when the river Trent hit its highest level3 what this requires is a labor MP who is willing to go down there including if the prime minister or Chancellor is from your own party rattle the doors of those people argue the corner for the capital investment in gedling that we deserve this area has far too long been at the bottom of the list whether it’s leveling up funding whether it’s flooding funding whether it’s funding from the Heritage uh Lottery fund and the other thing that is absolutely shameful in terms of those people are are victims to flooding is the numerous agencies you have to navigate the environment agency the County Council the parish council the burough Council def what this requires is one single agency to hold the ring on this issue once and for all recognize that we live in a hilly area here and I’ll finish by saying this we have to stop pretending that the issues around climate emergency and flooding are not linked they are directly linked the climate emergency is causing flooding and unless until we have a credible and clear plan to tackle the climate emergency and climate action around the world we will not tackle flooding s um so I can see two sides to to this problem um I live near southwell 10 years ago they had huge problems with flooding in South FL now the answer to that is you build a hous you’re building them far too close together uh too many Gardens are concreted over which upsets the water flow don’t do that the second side to the argument is this is where I get fired for being a farmer as well um is that farmers uh I can remember on our farm we had three men that worked on the farm one of them spent the whole of the winter clearing drains and died the by the time you got to Christmas there was nothing blocking those di it was just a clear flow all the way through the system and it was morally wrong you felt as if you were a bad farmer if you didn’t do that so farmers have to either get some subsidies from somewhere to get this done or do it themselves but if you own land and there is a dyke at the side of your land it’s your responsibility to make sure that the water move through your land onto the next piece of land and then it’s their responsibility to move it on half of the problems that we have with flooding in the United Kingdom is covits are blocked they’re constantly blocked because nobody has the either the wherewith all or the time to go and clear them the water the the waterways and the diyes have been there for three well 250 300 years they’ve worked brilliantly until nobody can be bothered to go out and clean them and then got 15 second anyway two things don’t build houses so close to together don’t cover them with concrete and clear every single diction D in the United Kingdom every year and do it [Applause] properly there was somebody showing a question before yes to you stand up I don’t speak very loud so I might just shout thank you Michael for speaking up um I’m going back a little bit because I was trying to ask a question before it’s about diversive wild life I might be linked to plooding as well because the point I was trying to make I wanted to make was to preserve HED r as migratory roots for small mammals HED R small copses and to annoy Farmers to get headand turning CL around I mean I have worked on a farm many years ago I used de side put but um as well to the proliferation of block Paving on front Gardens so what I’d like to see is plans to encourage the retention of hro to prevent them being rubbed off unless it’s really necessary and in the new developments there is open space provision that they should not be left just as big rust areas but perhaps putting HED RS or shrubberies in there in the urban area to encourage spaces between fences to allow movement of wildlife these are all small small measures they’re not hard to do and a lot of people do them without without legislation or regulation but they should be made more obvious because these small measures can make a difference to your Wildlife diversity um especially in an urban area Michael will probably correct this told 70% of gathering is green belt so it’s got lots of space to do all this and there should be option to do I believe it also it mitigates the effect of floodings but I’m sure an expert would know more than that thank you thank you um I don’t really know how to sum that up um a lot to unpack there but particularly I think the important point you were trying to make is that we need to preserve Wildlife Roots um hedge hedge RS are brilliant for that we we need to somehow reduce the amount of gardens that are concreted over for car parking uh or have plastic grass planted over them which doesn’t take the water away um any any comments from any of the panel I’d like to keep it down to five minutes with us otherwise we’re likely to run over later just a quick statement um I mean like I said I’m not from gedling I do I do know people from gedling i’ I’ve been given advice from people from gedling and they’ said that the local Council can be a bit lacked in terms of uh planning permission for these Drive covering up driveways so making sure the local council is on top of that um and in terms of uh Wildlife routs I’m not aware of any green party stance on it but I don’t see I don’t see any harm in it at least at least uh at least public service announcements right something it’s it’s pretty pretty one-sided Everyone likes little cute animals um so yeah Michael do you want to reply on that yeah I mean uh interesting what dominic says i’ just politely point out that there’s an independent climate scorecard around councils around the country and the top 10 councils in the country are labor councils there’s not a single green Council uh in the top 10 and ging’s in the top third so um that’s an independent monitoring um organization that looks at the actions of a local Council around climate and and nature the last lab well one of the previous labor governments built our beautiful Parks the Peak District uh in this country we will build three new national parks we’ll have new National River walks in every region uh of the country and I think you’re absolutely right to say that we need to do more to protect hedge RS our beautiful Rivers our beautiful Coast lines we are blessed to live in a beautiful island like ours and much much more needs to be done to protect uh nature uh in this country and I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again there is a choice in 18 days time we can either continue with the climate denial the climate delay that we’ve had over the last 14 years a government that’s not willing to act on water companies that are dumping raw sewage into our rivers and stand up for nature or we can turn a page on that and elect a new government that is willing to build three new national parks a new National River war in each of our reg regions stand up for nature positive uh housing working with Council these issues but with a national government that is willing to lead the way on these issues I am absolutely blessed to have lived in this community it is a beautiful area ging Country Park bestwood Country Park the beautiful walks alongside the river Trent some of the great Woodlands that we have uh in this area and we have to cherish them we have to stand up for them and we have to protect them and if you elect me as your mp on the 4th of July that is precisely what I will do [Applause] so I’m slightly worried that I’m that boring farmer guy that keep bringing it back to farming but uh the only reason I do that is is I I’m speaking from a bit of knowledge and for the lady uh to sort of address the thing the problem with the grubbing HED RS up I think it’s probably 40 years since I saw anybody take a hedge R out in the 10 square miles around my farm I think I’m not 100% sure but I I think it’s illegal um so you know I might be wrong on that but one thing we are doing which helps the movement of animals within within the the the locality is we’re working with sustainable hawton the the uh public group that own the wind turbine on the farm and they’ve got some government money kindly provided by the conservatives um and what they’re doing is they’re putting up a small solar farm on the uh Farm on the farm but what we’re looking at is how to grow crops in between the solar panels so they’re designing the solar farm around how you grow the crops probably strawberries raspberries high value crops within the the gap between the solar panels now these offer wonderful Wildlife routes uh all around the field because basically it’s you know n nine months of the year it’s dead vegetation it’s a superb way for the animals to move around the farm and it’s something that’s an experimental thing that we’re starting this Autumn um and just for the record I’ve never pulled the Hedge out but I’ve planted many many many hundreds of meters of it so and I think most farmers are like that thank you we’ve got about one minute if uh either of you wish to add anything can I just say one quick thing um so I know this is gedling but we do also have a a kind of beautiful Coastline and so the LI Dems would uh want to um create and restore salt marshes and mud flats so you’re talking about biodiversity that’s kind of a big thing we’re going to have more weding Birds um and uh you know another area to kind of walk around and enjoy well the question was about hedge Ray I I agree I think there’s a and and um and front Lawns I think there should be a special circle of hell reserve for those who asurf their front Lawns and um you know and I think hedro are are part of what makes England England isn’t it you know you go to the continents and you you don’t you know the the the look of our landscape is is quintessentially English you can tell where you know you can tell that your home you know in part because of because of our hedro they’re part not only a part of the biodiversity part of our uh natural heritage I think they’re part of in some ways in part of our cultural heritage as well and certainly they are something that need to be protected and cherished thank you right we have one more formal question and then there will be time for questions from the floor and I recall that you have one okay do you think that our current political system which prioritizes the short term up to the next general election over the long term is capable of responding appropriately to the existential challenges of the climate crisis do you think there might be other ways to meet the climate and nature challenges we face and I’ll take you one to five so TD first right well um no probably not um I think we do need electoral reform um we do need like the gentleman said um we do seem to have prioritized this uh in recent years like brexit which have taken up enormous times I’m sure in Parliament that uh we could have spent discussing climate change and diversity and important things don’t know what what the um effort with brexit has got us apart from a slight more stagnant economy it’s uh not been great um so yeah we do need uh a political reform it’s not just about the House of Commons the house of House of Lords um uh should be elected shouldn’t have appointments um and yeah it’s that should make some hopefully if we can reform the House of Lords I mean one of the plans was to put politicians in I know you might not like politicians but uh put them in for longer so they can make these decisions in in the interests of the country in the long term um without fear of having to be kicked out in time thank you thank you it’s a phrase I think it may have been attributed to Churchill but I I may be wrong on that that you know democracy is the worst form of government except for all the others um and yeah there can be there can it is sometimes a criticism of of of decision- making um that that that sometimes it this shortterm is um but I think what we’ve seen is it is there is a capacity for government to make long-term decisions and I said at the outset of one of these my remarks earlier about um about legislating for um you know for Net Zero by 2050 which which locks governments in place to make those long decisions the long-term decisions uh we’ve seen for example in the plan for water uh which is a long long-term uh program uh to clean up our waterways uh by 2050 these are these are long-term plans which government can legislate for and in doing so make it more difficult for um future governments to to to repeal but look these it does require governments who are able to make tough decisions and able uh to to make difficult decisions um and we spoke about brexit actually what I think one of the consequences of brexit um is that we can’t blame sort of European regulation we can’t other people uh for for our issues that we face um we have to make we have to you have to put you put your politicians to make decisions at general elections and then you have to hold them to account um after a period of time um and sometimes politicians get it right and some politicians get it wrong um but I think it is the best system that we’ve got and I I worry that if we do not have a kind of democratic system which is making uh these kind of decisions um that we don’t get the we don’t necessarily get the Buy in from the people that we need to make the the difficult decisions that we do need to do to get to Net Zero and to improve our environment thank you Tom mik system isn’t working K starm said if he’s elected as the Prime Minister that we need a decade of national renewal but a decade won’t even be enough uh to tackle this issue so far we are behind as a country so far the world is behind on the gravest challenge facing this world that we have ever seen but I’ll tell you what else doesn’t help a lack of stability from the national government I’m afraid to say to you Tom that five prime ministers in the last six years has provided instability on this issue I’ve lost count of the number of chancellors we’ve had over the last six years uh in the government chopping and changing and a government that all too often has seen to be looking to the self-interest rather than the national interest and the only way that this issue around climate change will be tackled is by a government that once again is willing to step up and step in and lead the world remember the last uh labor government for all the mistakes that were made leading on the Kyoto agreement being the first country in the world to have change act now committing to be the first government in the western world to have clean Power by 2030 finally turning a page on the justi of being the last in the 10 leading on clean power having our own publicly owned Energy company Great British energy that will reduce bills give us energy security and show that we are willing to bring down carbon emissions but I’ll tell you what else doesn’t help in the political system a political party that has tried to germander the system to make sure that people who are going to be hit by this issue are not engaged it is long past the time for votes at 16 the future generation are going to be affected by this issue and they deserve a saying the government that’s going to be be taking decisions at it and the other thing that is reprehensible that this government has done is the changes to our voting system to disenfranchise the most vulnerable to disenfranchise those who don’t have a voice on these issues and if a labor government is elected in 18 days time we will look at votes for 16 we will reform those issues that disenfranchise people in terms of voting we are committed in the manifesto to the abolition eventually of the House of Lords and as your local Member of Parliament I am also committed to arguing for a change to our voting system as well it is long [Music] overdue um so my answers are going to be a lot shorter than those answers um It’s Perfectly obvious that can you trust governments to manage things as as climate change the answer to that is no you can’t because the conservative government of the last 10 14 years absolute classic example of how many times have they changed their mind on hs2 um zero every time there’s a problem which there’ll be problems in this sort of thing because it’s a mammoth task the first thing they do is throw the towel in and change the rules nobody knows where they are so the answer to the and I wouldn’t trust any other party as well you know because going to be have exactly the same um you know reasons to change their mind I think it’s so important it needs to be enshrined in law you’re going down a certain direction it will cost a lot of money it might not cost as much as you think but this is where we’re going and the ability for the politicians to change their mind after four five six seven eight years should be taken away it’s far too important it should be enshrined in law this is what we’re going to do this is how we’re going to do it and that’s the end of it me well I mean like Todd I think that this system isn’t working um first P the post disen franzese in the millions um I think like the gentleman at the back said that U PR is a much preferable system um it provide it encourages cooperation long-termism rather than shortterm uh short termism um I mean of course labor and conservative defend it it’s because it provides them with massive majorities um and it means that they can go go through their entire term of government with no scrutiny right um and Tom you mentioned about uh how MPS can be held accountable but has anyone heard of someone called gring The Justice SEC he privatized the probation service to massive harm to millions of people and he got reelected next time he got put in a safe seat yeah so yeah sorry you haven’t quite heard the last of the candidates uh we have uh an opportunity for questions from the floor there’s a lady with the blue head scarf and there’s a lady in the front here uh in the purple top but I’ll take the blue head off first please so um just thinking about climate change and how climate change is a global issue um I like to I do have a scientific background um got PhD in biotechnology I do look at the work of a lot of climate scientists there are some really good um there are there are there’s a lot of good work being done there’s a lot of solutions out there that we could be investing in but it requires Global Solutions it’s not just about England doing what England does we have to be reaching out and working with Partners in the global South to ensure that we meet the crisis in this where our Focus seems to be on on warfare and um that’s that’s only going to get worse as the as the climate changes and bigger sections of the globe become unlivable how how do we ensure Global cooperation where is that coming from I don’t hear anything about how we’re working with the global South to deal with these situations [Applause] thank you well the uh liberal Democrats would uh go back to 0.7% of grow uh national income being spent on uh foreign aid and we would prioritize some of that going towards climate change so hopefully our small contribution it doesn’t uh address the whole problem I think you’ve got to have lots of boring meetings with politicians Summits um but it’s partly about public opinion people have got to force the politicians to take action um if you hear a lot of uh voters saying this this is a problem you will respond people will um politicians will want your vote they will listen to you if there are enough people so it’s I think it’s about mobilization and communication I think when you frame it in a sense that it’s a global issue it’s quite easy for people to ignore because that’s everyone’s problem and therefore not mine or that other country’s problem they’re polluting a lot more America pollutes a lot more than the UK uh and and Europe um so you do need to bring people together and convince them I think using maybe local examples I think the lids have kind of been pushing the the sewage thing quite a lot because it’s something that people can relate to we can talk about climate change and and targets but I think people start switch off as you’re talking about sewage Po in the water people listen you know my wife goes outdoor swimming with her colleagues quite often and you know they pick quite carefully where they go U if you have any tips darish sure there’s a lovely place I’ll talk to me later thanks Tom well you’re absolutely right I mean this is you know we can we can sometimes be at risk of being a little bit insular on this this is you know we talk about global warming it is a global issue we need to show leadership on this issue I think we have shown leadership on this issue we you know we’ve LED cop Summits um we are I think fortunate in being a country that does exist you know exert a lot of soft power we can we can go into the international Arena and and and lead by example which we can do um and then we can make we can make the case to other countries to encourage them to to follow our lead on that you know in conert with other our other Western allies um but that is a challenge you know and that that is that’s the challenge and and you know there are there are broader there are broader issues uh that we’re facing you know we take the rise of China for instance which is you know country where we need to bring them into this argument uh to make sure you know that that’re they’re coming around to our way of thinking on this issue but they are simultaneously a threat on many other issues a very big threat to this country you know you know the possibility of war with China I think is is in the next decade is not inconceivable so you know how we kind of you know how we manage this on the on the on the on the world stage you know with with with countries which are which are which are sometimes you know aggressive and working against our interests but to bring them into um you to bring them into uh the the uh the the sort of you the way of thinking on this is is going to be is the challenge that we have to to meet and face and continue with okay Mich I couldn’t agree more I mean climate change doesn’t respect National borders uh and nor will it ever and there’s a lesson in our history we we led the world on clearing third world Deb uh under the previous labor government uh and we can do it around again around climate and I I just say this to all of you you are not only electing A Member of Parliament on the 4th of July you are not only electing a new government you are doing something much much more important than that you are making a decision about whether you want this country once again to lead on the world stage around the issue of climate change or whether you want to continue with a country that is willing to step back from the issue and not step in on the gravest crisis facing our country uh in the last uh few decades we clearly have got to be speaking to our nearest neighbors uh in Europe you don’t do that as the government’s been doing in recent years by insulting them uh across the channel in the way that we have seen and I’m afraid to say Tom it’s all very well speaking here tonight about uh Global Leadership and international institutions you also don’t earn the trust of your fellow member states around the World by attacking multinational institutions in the way that we’ve seen over the human rights court or other issues seen from the government in recent years uh either Kia starmer if he is elected as the Prime Minister Rachel ree if she is elected as the chancellor in 18 days time myself as your Member of Parliament will lead on these issues we will argue not only with countries uh in the western world but also South as you said anybody turning on the news in recent week seeing the rise of temperatures to 50 degrees in India our fellow human beings citizens who are blessed to share this planet with us tells you that we have to wake up to this issue we have to come around the table in the way that we have done around the issues in the Middle East and the issues in Ukraine and we have to speak as one globe on this issue and that requires a government here in the Kingdom that will lead on this issue that will stop turning in on itself that will stop looking at self-part interest and that will once again start thinking about the national and the international interests you know one of the most egregious things that this conservative government did and I think they did it out of political expediency to win votes shortly after they were elected they were naged on the 0.7 investment in other countries around the world in terms of International Development and they collapsed and got rid of our department for International Development that department for International Development was tackling AIDS it was tackling malaria it was leading the way on flooding in some of the countries in the world where people are losing lives over these issues and it is incumbent on people like us who live in one of the sixth richest countries in the world to stand up and step up on these issues stop talking about our fellow human beings as though they were just some other on some other country in some other nation state and T start speaking to them in a compassionate way as fellow citizens of this precious planet that we are blessed to live on the labor government in 18 days time and a labor MP here in gedling we will once again lead in the world on the issue around the climate emergency we’re running quite tight for time uh does either of you want to say anything you will get um your one minute uh candidate debrief yeah I’ll just do a very quick thing um just on this topic um so around the idea of cooperation with the world um I’d like to just focus on two things and that’s immigration and the grid um so in terms of immigration Michael you’ve covered it quite well in terms of we’re all citizens of this planet we should kind of end the Hostile culture around immigration like coming here for a reason they’re coming here for a reason there’s climate there’s climate uh immigrants coming from some of the hottest places in the world and so we should welcome them help them whatever um second the grid um again I’m not a scientist or an engineer but part of the green party Manifesto is to um re re upgrade our grid um to kind of integrate it with Europe so say if we’re producing an excess of energy we can then export it to Europe and likewise if we’re running in a deficit of energy we can import from Europe yeah sorry yes very quickly please um okay super quick um my background is in civil engineering and I’m currently doing a masters in humanitarian so I here at the back of sorry my background is in civil engineering and I’m currently doing a MERS in humanitarian engineering very interested in flooding I’m I live in colic as well so obviously we saw the storm um in January um the area manager for the Trent catchment said we can’t build our way out of climate change what he was talking about was talking about building more flood defenses um we don’t we literally don’t have the resources the money for all of the building that we need to do to protect ourselves we need to be resilient to flood in and I want to ask you how you’re going to advocate for nature-based Solutions in increasing our resilience so that places like colic when inevitably we do get flooded how can we we bounce back and protect nature at the same time time okay thank you uh quick quick responses please anybody yes Simon sorry it’s back to farming again so L Lincoln has a flood plane um that is designed to protect it from flooding so the farmer grows his crops there it’s a huge Farm I think it’s 2 and a half thousand acres so they have an agreement that if they need to open the sloes and let water out of the rivers in the area to protect Lincoln he knows perfectly well that his farm will be flooded for maybe two three four months but it’s a financial Arrangement so that you know maybe nine times out of 10 he’s fine he gets his crops off the fields but he knows that there may be that one year where his whole Farm is flooded um so there is a move in farming subsidies and agricultural subsidies towards uh rewilding Greening uh environmental projects does the very generous conservative government have put a certainly substantial amount of money towards that type of thing and I think there will be farmers who are close to big cities and if the government came along and said look you’ve got 58 is there it’s absolutely perfect place for a flood plane you know you can grow your crops on it you can grow your wild flowers but you know occasionally you may lose the whole lot but it’s like an insurance policy will pay you so the simplest way to do it would would be to go down that route and try and protect the cities that like Worcester for instance which floods every three years or something um more and more flood planes everybody sort of wins the farmer’s got a a regular income but he gets a top up if he loses the lot um so I think the looking at then you revisit that problem where people were building on the flood planes so you can’t pay somebody to have a flood plane and then a developer comes along and said oh by the way I’d like to go 100 houses there well either it’s a flood plane or it’s not so if if you’re going to create a flood plane it’s there for 50 years it’s not there on the whim of the farmer or the landowner until he gets a better offer it’s a flood plane so that’s the way I would look it I’m afraid we’re going to have to go straight to the candidates final one minute statements uh so tired okay um so I’m a liberal Democrat and uh so our philosophy is to give everyone the maximum amount of Freedom that we can have without impinging on other people’s freedoms so what does that have to do with kind of climate change and green gender it’s it’s the generational aspect so if we are to leave our children um a Just As Nice inheritance that we got then we need to do a bit more uh so that’s our philosophy um and we I think we’ve had a good record in in the coalition uh on climate change and uh we developed the green Investment Bank the first of its kind in the world uh we at least doubled uh renable energy and uh yeah other things but yeah that’s that’s it than well thank you for coming this evening um I hope that in a discussion on climate change there hasn’t been too much hot air from this panel uh but um in summary I said at the begin we want this is a conservative government that’s for Net Zero has led the way and wants to achieve an affordable pragmatic transition to Net Zero that’s why you should be voting conservative on the 4th of July and if and as an Arnold resident as someone who grew up walking up the Hobs uh to go and see the the up kisic Lane enjoying the Hedge Rays uh that we have which are about to be removed by labor Le ging B Council as they redevelop that area I say if you reelect Tom Randall as your Member of Parliament you’ll have somebody who will continue you to stand up for your green spaces in around gley 2023 was the hottest year on record and I was driving here tonight from my home in Red Hill and I thought about Amy and EK two outstanding climate leaders two young girls who went to school here in gedling who have set out a single-minded mission to remove single-use Plastics not just from the community here in gedling not just from the United Kingdom but around the world and who is anybody either in this community or across the country to tell them they shouldn’t have that dream they shouldn’t have that ambition and I drove here tonight thinking about Amy and Ella if you elect me as your Member of Parliament we will turn a page on the 14 years of climate delay climate denial a government that’s been more interested in self-interest than tackling the biggest issue facing our planet and let me just say this to you Mr Randall you’ve only been here 4 years arguing for ging constituency some of us have lived here our entire life arguing and delivering on these issues for the last 37 years and if I’m fortunate enough to be elected as your Member of Parliament I’ll continue doing that for you two every day of the [Applause] week well as I said earlier mine will be a lot shorter than that because at the moment I’m not a professional politician um said no you’re a father so what I would say is I I’ve got to confess I vote a conservative every time since I’d ever voted so you’d say well you know why would you suddenly go down the r of Reform well because we’ve had the worst government since an Anthony Eden’s and the SE crisis um and I mean that it is literally must be the worst government in the last 70 years now I think we’ve got to get away from all this figures F you know anybody can stand up here and and blind you with facts that they read that afternoon what we need is common sense government and to use your ears a little bit [Music] more me well I’m not going to pretend that the green party are going to win here if I’m going to be honest um we we we aren’t going to be you know thrashing these two it’s going to be one of these two they’re going to be sitting in Parliament um in a few weeks time um what I will urge you to do is that I mean the green party is a party that acts best when it’s putting pressure on the main two parties at least in this system if people see that we get say I don’t know 10% of the votes that’s pushing it but 10% of the votes one of these two will go oh people care about the climate I mean and the labor part need this more than anybody because they’re probably going to be in and they they went from what 28 billion to 8.3 billion on climate pressure needs to be there if you vote green you’ll show that pressure and 15 yeah I’ll leave it there well thank you to all five candidates uh I think you’ve acquitted yourselves well thank you to everybody in the audience here you’ve uh you’ve been of good humor and um that wasn’t necessarily a given um there will be another chance to see these guys in action on Thursday of this week at 8:00 there’s a general hustings event at St Paul’s Church in daybrook which is on Church I think it fronts onto Mansfield Road not not far from uh the premier in um uh so uh do you need an invitation to go to that or do you just turn up I think they prefer you to sign up right um I’m not quite sure how you go about that but uh uh I that would be the sort of venue where people’s very hard fought uh beliefs out or or whatever that you’ve been very polite about not expressing tonight despite the fact I’m sure that there are those feelings very strongly held in this room tonight thank you all thank you to the team and you’ve been absolutely [Applause] sorry how do we actually find out about Thursday night if you if you yeah Facebook or Google St Paul’s uh hustings they’re asking people to sign up I you can turn up but it it will come up it’s on Facebook and online Paul’s D Brook hustings we we’ve got a a clipboard a green clipboard oh sorry people want to sign up for more contact information as they go address Sally what are you telling me
1 Comment
Hmm. As expected, a load of within the overton window, narrative supporting puppets largely agreeing with each other. Not one opposing the myth of "climate catastrophe " caused by co2 #illusionofchoice