A very hot day in London especially when walking to our briefing on Climate Change. We met with the Dept of Energy and Climate Change for a briefing on UK Climate Change Policy and how the UK was delivering on energy and climate change objectives. The fact that there is a Dept focussed on Climate Change and Energy indicates the seriousness placed on these issues. Furthermore it seems there is commitment across the political parties to the ambitious plans in place. Key issues – the plan will involve increasing use of nuclear power as well as renewable energy sources like wind. The UK has no real problem with methane gas (unlike NZ) but carbon dioxide.
I followed up on the Olympic project I mentioned yesterday when I met with the leadership of the Trade Union Congress. Unions are committed to success of the Olympics both at the construction and delivery phases with a Memorandum of Understanding signed between all parties. I also heard about the significant lift in apprencticeships as part of the Government’s economic stimulus package. Again a stark contrast to the lack of ambition in this area at home.
Over lunch I spoke to the Head of Education at Parliament who deals with some of the youth outreach work in Parliament. They have recently increased funding into the area of school visits to Parliament so that a 75% travel subsidy is provided to schools throughout the UK and as a consequence the visits to Parliament are now no longer dominated by schools from London or the South East but are representative of the spread across the UK. They are working on further improvements to the outreach programme as part of building understanding of the political system and the role of Parliament. I intend to find out more about the Civics education in schools.
We met with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee to discuss the UK rural economy and the UK farming industry. This provided an opportunity for us to discuss in detail issues like food miles and other risks to NZ exports. We of course pointed out that over 99% of NZ products are shipped to the UK.
Another briefing of real value was around Internet Governance and E-crime and the role of politicians in dealing with a problem that doesn’t have national borders.
