PowerSwitch

IanG's post got me wondering...

Adam

I haven't written to my MP, but that is not surprising.

John Hemming MP
Chair All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas.

John, as an MP, how do you think we would be most effective in raising the matter of Peak Oil with our Members of Parliament? I feel this is a very important aspect of the communication and chances of a desired response.

snow hope wrote:John, as an MP, how do you think we would be most effective in raising the matter of Peak Oil with our Members of Parliament? I feel this is a very important aspect of the communication and chances of a desired response.

Q) How important will peak oil be at the next election?
A) Completely irrelevant.

..and I wrote to my MP (David Lepper, Brighton Pavilion, on board, although may lose to greens at next GE...)

I wrote to mine and got a reply back within a week which pretty much echoed previous statements on the matter issued by central government about it - basically the response that Monbiot has quoted many times in the guardian.

Quite disappointing because I specifically went into a lot of detail about the food situation (a la peak food) and it was very much dismissed as a non-issue.

To be fair, I don't know what I was expecting.

At least my MP (Shailesh Vara, Con) was engaged on the issue, and forwarded correspondence to / from the seriously useless / negligent Malcolm Wicks. Wicks' staff just issue standard letters in response to PO concerns.

I'm not sure my MP is convinced, but I did give him a quick briefing, referred him to John Hemming, and left him the Hubberts Curve Oil Poster and David Strahan's book when I briefly met him at a local constituency surgery last year. Last time I looked on Strahan's website, about a dozen MPs had received copies of the book.

Kind of hoping he gets to be energy minister in the next Parliament, that way we know we have a PO aware person in post....

I wrote (at length ) to my MP when I was living in London. She replied and forwarded my letter to the then environment minister (Elliot Morley). I got a reply from him re-iterating the government line then and now that the EIA say there is nothing to worry about before 2030, provided we invest a couple of tens of trillions in future oil production over the next 20 odd years.

I suppose I should repeat the process down here in Devon.

I mentioned peak oil in an email to my MP when badgering her in the lead up to the Iraq war. (ie. it's all about the oil...) No direct reply, but she did resign her government post and vote against the war. She was still kicked out at the last election.

Haven't written for a while and I didn't get a reply.

Am thinking of writing again after reading Monbiot's article last week that they have no plans for PO whatsoever. That's just so unbelievably irresponsible. No wonder things are going downhill with a government like that.

I wonder what other countries are making preps. Sweden aims to be oil free by 2020 and there was an article about Spain's plans a while ago.

My old and new MP's (moving district) are both carear politicians who will say and do whatever they're told, speaking to them is like speaking to the labour party manifesto, which they parrot well.

I voted no. I think it's best to ignore government as much as possible. Writing to them only encourages them!

I don't think my Hungarian is up to writing to the local MP yet

I did meet him in person at the pig killing in the village though.

In terms of the UK, I think that all you are getting is the same old, same old bullsh*t reply. Probably because, like pretty well all Western governments they either have no idea what to do, or they know that there is absolutely nothing they _can_ do. I find it astonishing that they don't even seem to recognise the All Party Parliamentary Group on Peak Oil and Gas (www.appgopo.org.uk/) that exists within their own membership.

There are a few optimists out there - notably CERA, but we know why that is. But IEA gets more pessimistic with each passing report. Whether they are still on the optimistic side only time will tell!

I wrote to my MP (Andrew MacKay, Con) when I moved to Bracknell last year, explaining my thoughts and enclosing The Last Oil Shock.

He sent a polite one paragraph letter back to me, suggesting I was 'right to be concerned about energy security' (an expression I hadn't used) and promising to 'take a look' at Strahan's book.

Make of that what you will.

re wrote:I voted no. I think it's best to ignore government as much as possible. Writing to them only encourages them!

I agree. Once was a time when I hated that sort of thinking, but the current crop of MPs (present company excepted) are so mediocre, venal and useless that I've completely lost faith in democracy as a tool to make a better society. Until about a year ago I was ardently in favour of democracy, but now I want nothing to do with it. I won't be voting in future, and I suspect a lot of people are feeling the same way.

No, I have not written to an MP concerning PO.

The older I get (42) the more I think politics is irrelevant to my preparations.

I swing from the opinion that they are pretty clueless about energy, to the opinion that what the heck could they do if they knew or if they do know told the truth.

Much better to refine my beer can solar panel so as to remove the need for any central heating next year.