UKIP no-show at climate change hustings (From Hampshire Chronicle)

UKIP no-show at climate change hustings

9:34am Friday 23rd April 2010 in Politics

FOUR of the five men hoping to be Winchester’s next MP vied to be the conqueror at the city’s latest ‘battle of hustings’.

Several debates are planned and the one organised by Winchester Action on Climate Change attracted around 100 people.

But the city’s UKIP candidate, Jocelyn Penn-Bull, was not among them and sent in a note saying he did not believe in climate change.

The four who attended were Steve Brine for the Conservatives, Patrick Davies for Labour, Mark Lancaster for the English Democrats and Martin Tod for the Liberal Democrats.

As the debate opened, Mr Brine said: “The destruction of the rainforests made me very angry and it made me want to shout at the television and to make a difference.

“Even if you’re the world’s greatest sceptic you can’t deny that there’s a strong economic case for having a greener economy.”

Mr Tod argued that Winchester City Council, currently Tory-run, could learn from the Lib Dems in Eastleigh about boosting recycling.

Along with the other candidates, he was asked how to tackle Winchester’s carbon footprint and how to deal with a soaring global population.

“Irrespective of population, we have a moral duty to find a way to reduce our carbon footprint. Not everybody in the world is equal in this, and we have to take a strong lead,” he said.

Mr Davies said Labour took climate change seriously and set up a government department to tackle the issue.

He said: “We were the first country in Europe to have a department in that format and it’s already having results. We were also the first country in Europe to put our carbon reduction targets in law.”

He added that they must “take the public with them” with any green policies, which was echoed by Mr Lancaster.

He said the “jury was out” on climate change and scientific evidence was available on both sides.

“My big fear with the climate change issue argument is with the contradictory literature on the subject, and if we lose the argument in the ‘court of public opinion’ then many other environmental issues will be swept away with it,” he said.

Mr Penn-Bull’s views were read to the audience by Professor Joy Carter, vice chancellor of the University of Winchester, who chaired the event on Thursday, April 22, at the university’s Stripe Building.

“Perhaps it’s as well I can’t make it this evening as I’m a confirmed climate change denier. I’m also convinced it’s been invented to get us to pay more tax,” the note said.