Tuesday, October 18, 2011

The guilty ones

This is the voting list for the Climate Change Bill – 28 October 2008. The vote is 463 for, three against. Some 200 went AWOL, but not – as it turns out – Cameron or the current chancellor, George Osborne. It is even worse than Witterings from Witney records. Both Cameron and Osborne voted for "Labour's Climate Change Act".

The three who voted against were: Christopher Chope, Peter Lilley and Andrew Tyrie. Tellers for the Noes were Ann Widdecombe and Philip Davies.

Particularly notable for his intervention in the very short debate was Steve Webb, Lib-dim member for a Bristol constituency.

"The Bill is welcome and important", he said. "Many people asked", he added, "whether the target of 80 percent was too tough and whether it was achievable. I believe that history will judge that it errs on the low side—new evidence and information suggests further, faster, deeper. I fear that we may have to revisit the targets to strengthen them to avoid the dangerous climate change that we are united in fearing".

Well, how times change. No longer, it seems, are we quite so united in fearing.

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