ALAN SIMPSON
News from Somewhere Else
Latest from Blog
2022 is not going to be the year I turn into a film critic. But if you haven’t seen the film ‘Don’t Look Up’, do so now. This isn’t just because the film offers a terrific satire on the conflicting political influences of science and spin, or because there really is a meteorite heading Earth’s…
Forget the shenanigans about Tory Party partying, something far more insidious it taking place; something eating away at the foundations of British democracy. Socialised distraction is just a cover for doing so. As Boris Johnson knows all too well, insecurity is the handmaiden of authoritarianism. Create it and you erode public confidence in an array…
Don’t blame them; the sherpas, the civil servants and Ministers. They did their best, struggling to get commitments (rather than conditional brackets) out of COP26 negotiations. Surviving on caffeine and little sleep, they genuinely tried to get something meaningful past fossil fuel lobbyists and national vetoes. In the end, everyone had something to grumble about.…
“Don’t choose extinction”. This was the simple advice offered by a dinosaur in the UN’s CGI video message to global leaders. The question is whether any have the sense to heed it. The chaotic upheavals surrounding Glasgow’s COP26 gathering suggest the message is not getting through fast enough. To be fair, there were hopeful signs.…
Sometimes there are events that make you rail in anger. Others make you weep. Reading the government’s plethora of ‘net zero’ policy papers ahead of November’s COP26 climate conference, I could barely hold back the tears. It wasn’t their lack of ambition but the absence of a route map (with sufficient resources and urgency) that…
In her book Men in Dark Times, the philosopher Hannah Arendt coined the notion of inner emigration. What was it that stood in the way of so many prominent/influential people challenging the rise of Hitlerism or organising escape routes from it? From the biographies she explored, Arendt concluded that many found the external realities of…
Transformation Moment
My pamphlet 'Transformation Moment' is intended to support the case for a radical shift in energy thinking; as much about democracy as technology, and about 'systems' rather than just supply.
Lord Moore has called for the BBC to show “super impartiality” in its coverage of what he calls the “scandal” of Boris & parties. In a letter to @telegraph I ask why he didn’t call for this when Blair, May & Corbyn were facing leadership crises
‘Do Look Up’: a time to change everything | Morning Star
‘Do Look Up’: a time to change everything
Those who seek to rescue democracy – and construct the different climate politics that tomorrow requires – must shift the terms of debate and the ...
morningstaronline.co.uk
My colleague @alanwhiteheadmp has served Southampton for decades with huge skill, intelligence, dedication & integrity. He has always been a champion for Southampton Test and a great support to those of us lucky enough to work with him.
Thank you Alan!
Leaders pay tribute to 'loyal, hardworking' Southampton MP who is due to step down
COMMUNITY leaders have paid tribute to an outgoing MP who is due to step down after more than two decades.
www.dailyecho.co.uk
Whereas once Patel gets her policing bill through Parliament, if the elderly want to peacefully protest about losing the BBC, they will actually be given prison sentences.
… Dump Sizewell C and the Nuclear Financing Bill (which would put expensive electricity charges on peoples bills ‘decades’ before the electricity would arrive).
Renewables - better, quicker, cheaper, cleaner.
How to smooth over the energy price shock
Will the government try to defer soaring energy costs to cushion bill-payers?
www.bbc.co.uk
anyway if you are out there and you feel sad and angry because you maybe feel like what you sacrificed didn't matter: it did matter. We ordinary people, quietly doing the right thing, mattered. We took care of each other even when they were laughing at us for it.
What is an agent? When I was an MP there were almost 100 ‘secondees’ from Big Energy inside govt, all writing the script of how to pay them subsidies (including the crazy CfD’s for new nuclear). Perhaps all should be classed as ‘agents of a foreign power’.
@AlanSimpson01 MPs shouldn't need outside funding, shouldn't be beholden to anyone other than the nation and their constituents.