Sorry for doing two posts in a day, but because I only found out about this yesterday, and the deadline is short, I didn’t want to delay.
The good news is I won in the ballot to get a ten minute rule bill considered by parliament and I wanted to give local people a chance to make a suggestion.
The bad news is that time is short.
The deadline for indicating the topic of the bill is the 6th of February, with a debate being held on the 21st Feb.
So I need your suggestions by next Friday the 3rd of February. This will allow me to sit down, think about it, do a bit of research and write a plan by the deadline of the 6th.
Suggestions can be made by using the link here.
Just a couple of things to bear in mind. Firstly, 10 minute rule bills cannot make spending committments. Secondly, the more controversial a proposal, the more devided opinion is on an issue, the less likely that it will become law.
johnleechmp.wordpress.com 
Call for a ban on the April rent increase for Southway tenants who are facing an 8% increase at this timer of austerity.
The 10 minute rule bill cannot make spending committments, as John makes clear from his post
Dear John
I’m a local resident living in Chorlton Park (Weller Ave) and also a supporter of the Sustrans and their Free Range Kids campaign.
I’d be grateful if you would use this opportunity to raise the central issues to the campaign and call on the government to reverse the decline in the proportion of children walking and cycling to school by acknowledging the barriers which prevent children from being able to walk, cycle and play outside as a result of safety concerns.
I’d like you to urge Ministers across transport, health, environment and education briefs to work in a joined-up way to inspire, encourage and support local authorities to invest consistently and coherently over the next 10 years to create safe and pleasant environments for walking and cycling which will not only benefit the health of children but also the environment and communities.
Dear John
As you know, I’m a local resident living in Fallowfield (Victoria Road) and also a supporter of the Sustrans and their Free Range Kids campaign.
I’d be grateful if you would use this opportunity to raise the central issues to the campaign and call on the government to reverse the decline in the proportion of children walking and cycling to school by acknowledging the barriers which prevent children from being able to walk, cycle and play outside as a result of safety concerns.
I’d like you to urge Ministers across transport, health, environment and education briefs to work in a joined-up way to inspire, encourage and support local authorities to invest consistently and coherently over the next 10 years to create safe and pleasant environments for walking and cycling which will not only benefit the health of children but also the environment and communities.
Regards
Justin McDonnell
Dear John
I’m a local resident living in Highbank Drive, East Didsbury, Manchester and also a supporter of the Sustrans and their Free Range Kids campaign.
I’d be grateful if you would use this opportunity to raise the central issues to the campaign and call on the government to reverse the decline in the proportion of children walking and cycling to school by acknowledging the barriers which prevent children from being able to walk, cycle and play outside as a result of safety concerns.
I’d like you to urge Ministers across transport, health, environment and education briefs to work in a joined-up way to inspire, encourage and support local authorities to invest consistently and coherently over the next 10 years to create safe and pleasant environments for walking and cycling which will not only benefit the health of children but also the environment and communities.
Mark
Dear John
I’m a local resident living in M27 0EW and also a supporter of the Sustrans and their Free Range Kids campaign.
I’d be grateful if you would use this opportunity to raise the central issues to the campaign and call on the government to reverse the decline in the proportion of children walking and cycling to school by acknowledging the barriers which prevent children from being able to walk, cycle and play outside as a result of safety concerns.
I’d like you to urge Ministers across transport, health, environment and education briefs to work in a joined-up way to inspire, encourage and support local authorities to invest consistently and coherently over the next 10 years to create safe and pleasant environments for walking and cycling which will not only benefit the health of children but also the environment and communities.
Dear John
I’ve just sent you a too-long email re David King’s article in this weeks Nature, entitled “Oil’s tipping point has passed”. David King is clearly concerned, and so should we all be. All should read the article and I shall be putting my copy of Nature in Didsbury library in a day or two, as usual. Otherwise it’s expensive to read on-line.
I support the Free Range Kids campaign. I also believe that it will be very difficult to implement effectively. Current cycle lanes are largely ineffective. Nevertheless we must try. There is a connection between David King’s article and the Free Range Kids campaign. Perhaps you can see some way of exploiting that connection.
Best wishes, John Watson
Dear John
I’m a local resident living in M21 0UP and also a supporter of the Sustrans and their Free Range Kids campaign.
I would also like you to raise the issues that previous responses have brought up.
Thanks
Andrew Roberts
Dear John
Further to my comment above, one way to advance the Free Range Kids campaign is thro’ legal channels, not thro’ infrastructure (cycle & pedestrian space) channels.
As apparently in some European countries, default liability/responsibility for car-on-cyclist and car-on-pedestrian crashes falls immediately on the motorist. This immediately improves motorist behaviour and general road manners. It is then up to the motorist to develop a watertight case to prove cyclist or pedestrian irresponsibility. I suggest that some European countries have demonstrated that this is the only way forward.
The CTC attempted this some years ago but were howled down by the Daily Mail et al. We need to howl back. The CTC have some merits but they are not tough campaigners, except for increased cycling on rural footpaths. I am a member.
What about a limited test run on this idea in a chosen area, or on selected roads?
Best wishes, John & Judy Watson
Dear John
My first comment above mentioned a lengthy email relevant to getting people out of their cars (and much more besides). I felt wider exposure of the email was appropriate, and comments invited, so here it is in full:
“Oil’s tipping point has passed”: public discussion, and the terminal dash for biomass.
TO: 1 More1 recipientCC: 2 recipientsYou 2 MoreBCC: recipientsYou
Hide Details FROM:J WATSON TO:John LEECH MP CC:Cllr Andrew Taylor Chris Davies MEP Message flagged Tuesday, 31 January 2012, 15:32Dear Mr Leech
The current edition of the heavyweight science journal Nature contains an article that suggests serious problems for our near future. It claims to show that “peak oil” occurred in 2005. The two authors are credible, one being David King, former UK chief scientific adviser. Their significant graphical data is strikingly reminiscent of the global warming “hockey stick” plot; but on this occasion the plot is of oil production versus oil price. The plot shows a very dramatic slope change, being a trend of sharply rising oil price, apparently starting in ~2005. The authors’ message is that the oil price “hockey stick” will make itself felt soon.
The article apparently got no significant coverage in UK media. This is unusual; a diminutive hominid skull unearthed in Papua New Guinea would normally achieve celebrity status; but apparently not a new analysis of oil price and its dramatic economic implications. Yet this concerns all of us, the way we live now, and the way we might need to live in the very near future. The article did achieve green blog status in the New York Times.
David King et al make the following points (and many others besides):
· from 2005, oil production has not risen to match increasing demand
· hence oil price has risen, though with wild fluctuation, probably matching demand fluctuation
· these costs contributed to the current economic crisis, contrary to the widespread belief that it was entirely credit-crunch driven· these effects have been noted by others, “but they need to be lodged more firmly in the minds of policy makers”
· fossil fuel reserves are unsubstantiated estimates; they have little or no credibility; many are being adjusted downwards
· the only sure measure of supply is what is actually produced
· verbatim: “This is such a frightening prospect that many have simply avoided considering it.”
· “…politicians debate policies that will lead to economic growth. But… they haven’t identified the necessary solution: weaning society off fossil fuel.”
· the need to increase efficiency of fossil fuel use, taxing oil to encourage use reduction, lowering speed limits (quite contrary to Coalition talk)· encouraging public transport· redirecting tax credits to renewable-energy developments
The final point above is a frightening double-edged sword. The recent DECC Renewables Obligation Consultation seeks ways to encourage renewables through appropriate incentives. But the ambition of DECC (and therefore of Mr Huhne and the Coalition government) shone through the consultation documents: it is to massively increase the use of biofuels because of their apparent cheapness, thus leading to the importation from across the world of huge quantities of wood (33 million tonnes annually) to supply UK power stations. Importing such large quantities of wood from remote suppliers without tight environmental safeguards risks causing substantial harm to habitats overseas whilst doing nothing to avert catastrophic climate change, since the net carbon emissions benefit from such unregulated suppliers is in extreme doubt, as the Committee on Climate Change has recently pointed out.
In short, the scenario described by David King in this week’s Nature could ironically lead to a sudden and massive dash for biomass that risks rapidly destroying the world’s forest habitats, as well as the world’s climate. Indeed, since David King states that DECC is well aware of the contents of his article, are we already witnessing DECC’s terminal dash for biomass?
But this is not just a matter for central government. How will Manchester function if a sudden and massive oil price rise prevents people form using their cars? Do local policy makers seriously discuss these things or, as David King suggests, do they avoid them? Is there an outline of a contingency plan to keep things moving? Shouldn’t there be more public exposure to, and awareness of, these possiblities?
Best wishes, John Watson
Dear John
Everyone with safety and cycling interests should read today’s (Thursday’s) Times (forget Rupert Murdoch for now). This is the start of yet another cycling safety campaign. This could be big. And the Coalition government quite rightly get some stick on page 8 for talking of increasing speed limits and removing cameras etc. £1 at the newsagent or go to thetimes.co.uk/citiesfitforcycling. The pressure is rising for action, so add your name to it!
Best wishes, John Watson
I think to scrap the welfare reform bill altogether might be throwing the baby out with the Bathwater. The main thing is to get rid of anyone abusing the benefit system, as this is a great tax waste for most individuals.
For example, there are some people that through ill health cannot work full-time. Whilst the conservatives have recently broken the law by turning people’s benefits off and leaving them with NOTHING, which is cold, ruthless and heartless, there are many people who have been on benefit for years who are capable of SOME work, but maybe 3 or four days a week maximum, due to having to go to regular hospital appointments etc. I guess the Conny’s will want to do SOMETHING about welfare, as I know i can’t speak for all Conny’s when i say this, but the majority of them I’ve met seem to be very anti-anyone being on benefits.
I do know that continual worklessness creates depression, and people being out of work can reduce their confidence to GO to work. But people still need to be respected as people. A friend of mine has Krohms disease. He has been out of work for over ten years, and is lacking in skills. He believes that he is unfit to work. He finds the fact that she has to go to the toilet regularly, quite difficult. This has now become a mental health issue. He has decided that he would feel too embarrassed to tell her potential employer that he needs to go to the toilet. This person has done volunteer work in the community for some time. They have been told that they can’t continue to volunteer on a long term basis, they need to work. This person is fit for work as I see it, but their lack of confidence and experience means that they don’t believe that they are fit for work.
A few years ago I delivered a course in the community which is a City and Guilds course. This was about barriers to work. This is a very helpful course which can be done with ANYONE on unemployment benefits. Many of the people I did this course with, went on to do further skill training or took employment. People who have been out of work have MENTAL barriers to work which are very real to them. I would like to recommend that this course be done with everyone who has been out of or looking for work for some time, and seem averse to the concept of working.
I would also recommend new training for the people in Job Centres. On the few occassions when I have been signing on, I have often been given advice by the people in the Job centres that vere me away from work and encourage me to stay on benefits. I think that this is morally wrong, and there needs to be a shake up in the Job Centres. Maybe some psychometric testing could reveal who these people are. I am told that many people who work in Job centres are people who have found it hard to get a job themselves. I don’t know if this is true. If it is, I am wondering if these people are the best people to be in the position of advising others.
Maybe there should be a new policy that encourages employers that they will be given a cash incentive if they employ someone who has been unemployed for a while, but is seen as fit to work, BUT ONLY if their skill base/personality/former experience matches the job description, and that they should possibly do a work trial first that is benefit funded. I do believe that there are a lot of people on benefits that are able to work, and I speak as someone who through finance related stress has suffered breakdown, and had times of unemployment sickness or unemployment myself. I do believe that the individual conservatives who made the decision to break the law, and leave people without any income or benefit should be personally fined. Whilst I do believe that worklessness can cause depression, I do not believe that the cure for clinical depression is always work. Sometimes people need to be phased in gently, e.g. by starting to volunteer first. Clinical depression is an illness that can be cured sometimes on a short term basis in many different ways, including medication as well as different types of therapies. Work is just one of these. There could be a law that the long term unemployed start to do so many hours of voluntary work a week, in their chosen career. I do not agree with the Job Centre telling people to do jobs that is not in their
natural or studied line of work.
Also, I would also like to see more laws about the protection of Christians who have been discriminated against in the workplace. I have experienced this on occasion. We live in a CHRISTIAN country. WE have opened our doors to people of many faiths. I know Muslims who are living here with two wives. Let’s reclaim this country for the God of the Bible – whether an individual believes in God/agree with the Bible or not, I’m not sure that anyone in their right mind would agree with the moral laws in the Ten Commandments. As there are Ten Commandments in the Quran also, I think this could be brought in quite easily and without much upset. If I was to go and live in a predominantly Muslim country, then I would not expect this NOT to happen in schools, as it does here. I am not sure if the TC’s in the Quran are different to those in the Bible or not. Maybe there could be a law such as wider fines for those who break some of the Ten Commandments, eg one wife allowed to claim benefit, if there are more than one. I would also like to know that the Ten Commandments are being taught in schools, from early years. I know this may sound controversial, but I’m not sure that anyone, if questioned individually and privately, would disagree, once they know what the Ten commandments are. I am not against Muslim people, but I am against any culture which puts down or takes away the rights or voice of women. Many Muslims are God loving, praying people. Jesus has appeared to many praying Muslims in the Middle East in Dreams and visions. I know and love many Muslim people. Let’s just decide to stop living in a culture of Fear, and encourage others to do the same, and I’m talking to Muslims here as well. I have learnt that whilst Christian Culture is based on Truth and lies, (eg the Ten Commandments), Islam in based on honour and shame, If you tell a lie, you are in shame, but so long as the lie stays covered (no one finds out), you are still in honour. Bless you all for reading, and please do not give up loving ALL your neighbours, regardless of their religion, as Christ, the head of this country, has taught us to do.