Originally posted @ 10:58 pm, Wed 9th Sep 2009
... kinda.
It was actually the East Midlands Regional Grand Committee of the House of Commons.
Grand being a technical term, although it was fine.
Parliament it transpire had last met in Nottingham in 1357.
17 of the MPs from the East Midlands met to ask 3 questions of Phil Hope, the East Midlands Minister and then debate the economic situation.
And the news is .... the Liberal Democrat from Chesterfield is so boring.
I mean, oh dear. 25 minutes on banks and council housing, with perhaps just a hint of East Midlands in there. But you had to work to follow it. It's as if he's used to talking to himself in front of people who weren't listening and couldn't let it go.
And it just took time away from Labour MPs who had something to say.
But first, Alan Duncan, the newly-demoted Tory front-bench spokesperson. His pronouncement was that he didn't see the value of a minister for the East Midlands (overlooking I think that John Major had a Minister for Nottingham - the name escapes me). His announcement was how the Tories preferred EMDA as it was under the Tories - interesting cos it's firmly believed that his leader wants to scrap regional development agencies rather than reform them.
So to the Labour MPs' contributions - and beyond Paddy Tipping's quick guide to the radical history of Nottingham - it hooked into the importance of green issues for the future.
Alan Simpson took the the concept of peak oil a step further, in fact 3 steps further - peak phosphate, peak soil and peak water. (Outside, he told me he hadn't had time to introduce a fifth peak - the concept of peak oxygen).
On a more practical vein, Judy Mallaber explained how B.P.I., manufacturers of plastic sheeting such as that used to wrap bales on farms, had converted to using recycled / returned plastic sheets, only to find that only 20% of such sheeting is returned, 40% exported and the remaining 40% tipped or buried.
Mark Todd, MP for South Derbyshire, covered a range of points concerning support for businesses, including the development of green technologies at Toyota in Burnaston.
All in all, fairly enjoyable to listen to, with the exception of the 25 minute black hole in the middle. If the committee is to come to Nottingham again, they need to do a bit more to advertise its coming.
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