Carbon Reduction on track in Stockton

At full council tonight the Tory Cabinet member had put a motion on the agenda supporting the 10:10 campaign. Sadly, she'd forgotten to arrange for someone to second it. We'd already decided that I was speaking on the motion and that we of course would support it. After all, all the Lib Dem group are already signed up to the campaign along with other members of the party all over the country. That gave me the chance to second the motion and to thank her for saving me the effort of writing it!
We knew that the result of the Parliamentary debate on the same subject was due at about 7.15 so Denis was primed to watch the BBC Parliament channel and send us the result as soon as he saw it. In plenty of time before my speech the disgraceful result came through - a Labour majority of 70 saw off a motion in support of something their very own Milliband had supported at its launch. Fine words not worth the paper they were written on when it came to the crunch.
I did get a certain amount of pleasure in announcing the result during our council debate and seeing those Labour councillors who know something about climate change (not many of them it seems) look suitably embarrassed.
Stockton's motion was carried and so the council is now committed to signing up as individuals and to encouraging businesses and our communities to do the same.
First steps are being taken and more will happen as the year progresses. Stockton Lib Dems are having a competition to see who can cut their emissions the most during the year - watch this space!