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Diary entries by ben_norman on Fri 18th Apr 2008
By Ben_Norman
on Fri, 18th Apr 2008 at 00:38
The deep chill of Thursday evening was off-set by a heated debate between local politicians from across the party spectrum in a Question time style debate in Park building, chaired by Morys When discussing the role of local government in fighting climate change both incumerbant politicians focused discussion on initiatives taken on a local level, such as efforts to persuade Portsmouth drivers to take public transportation, at one point Counciller Vernon-Jackson alluded to plans for a tram system in Portsmouth. Steve Harris the UKIP spokesman took the contreoversial stance to deny the existance of climate change, denouncing enviromentalism as “a new religion.” Nick Chaffy, the Socialist Party spokesman questioned the privatisation polices of local services, which places climate change in the hands of the free market. John Molinuex denied that climate change could be solved in Portsmouth and called for the audience to examine the wider picture, in response Tim Dawes called for the audience and panel alike to “think globally, but act locally”, agreeing that the world scernario must be kept in mind but people can act on a personal and local level. Whilst as I member of the Socialist Party myself I may be accused of bias but I stand by my opinion that Nick Chaffy and Tim Dawes proved themselves to be the best of the speakers, through the strength and reason of their arguments as well as their oratory style, an opinion that was confirmed as the chair moved on to the second question, the impact of immigration on the economy. Steve Harris of UKIP lived up to his political sterotype by denouncing immigration as a drain on the national resources, claiming that the freedom of movement inside the European Union was the main cause of the problem. Harris stated that in tower hamlets election ballot papers were printed in sixty nine languages, citing this as an absurdity of multi-cultural Britain. In strong contrast John Molinuex, whose party calls for completely open borders with no restrictions on immigration, argued that the economic arguments for and against immigration were irrelevant compared to the cultural and human values. Surely, Molinuex argued, if a school child can speak or understand 21 languages “this is a magnificent thing.” Both Counciller Vernon-Jackson and Sarah Mcart... About 543 more words in this entry Permanent link
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