How should the Labour government respond to this overwhelming evidence? By moving further and faster with cuts to carbon emissions, surely.

Ministers could (for example) push ahead with insulating our homes and workplaces, which would also give everyone lower energy bills. Or they might do more to improve bus and rail services, so that people have a reliable alternative to using their cars. What they shouldn’t be doing, however, is making the problem worse by expanding airports, which the government’s own Climate Change Committee have already warned against. But it looks as if that advice will be ignored.

A third runway at Heathrow would be an environmental disaster for people in west London, with more disruption, noise and air pollution. But it would also have an impact on us here in Sevenoaks, and across south-east England. And those harmful effects will be multiplied if Gatwick expansion is given the go-ahead too.

It was therefore disappointing to hear our MP expressing support for the government’s plans. I hope that Laura Trott will reconsider that view when the implications for her constituents become clear.

The truth is that bigger airports cause huge environmental damage, make the transition to clean energy harder, and are very unlikely to produce the kind of ‘growth’ that this government seems so obsessed with.

Paul Wharton

Source: Sevenoaks Chronicle (p. 12), 6/2/25

The post the wrong choice appeared first on Sevenoaks Green Party.

Congratulations to Laura Trott on her re-election as our MP. It was a

considerable achievement on a disastrous night for the Conservatives.

Her vote share was down significantly, however. In 2019 it was 61%; this time

it was only 37%. She still won because of our unfair electoral system, which

meant that the other 63% counted for nothing.

And this was not an isolated case. Right across the country, the results of the

election often failed to reflect the way people voted. Labour won far more

seats than they would have done with proportional representation, for

example. At the other end of the scale the Green party have just four MPs, or

less than 1% of the total, despite winning 7% of the national vote.

We clearly need something fairer than first-past-the-post. Unfortunately,

successive governments haven’t wanted to get rid of a system that brought

them to power. Senior Labour figures are already ruling out any changes on

their watch, even though the party has recently been in favour of PR.

The Conservatives have ended up with 121 seats in the House of Commons,

including Sevenoaks. But with a different allocation – one that reflected their

share of the vote – that total would be 156. The number of Labour MPs would

be halved.

Perhaps then it’s time for Laura Trott and her colleagues to think again about

their longstanding reluctance to change first-past-the-post. A new system

could benefit them in future – and help to restore faith in politics.

Paul Wharton

Source: Sevenoaks Chronicle (p.10), 11/7/24

The post Time for proportional representation appeared first on Sevenoaks Green Party.