Today is the United Nations's World Environment Day. To coincide the Liberal Democrats are calling on individuals to promise to do their bit and join the Liberal Democrat 'pledge pyramid', whereby everyone signs up to one of the Environment Agency's pledges, and then encourages all their friends and colleagues to do the same.
A Friends of the Earth on-line poll today puts the Liberal Democrats far ahead of the other main parties in caring about climate change. Asked 'which of the three main parties cares most about climate change?', nearly 83 per cent of the respondents named the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives were in second place on 12 per cent and Labour on 6 per cent.
The Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team today applied to renew their passports to prevent their details from being added to the ID cards database. Once the Government has set up the National Identity Database, everyone who applies for a passport will have to attend an interview and have their fingerprints and irises scanned. Passports issued now will be valid for 10 years, meaning people will be able to wait until 2016 before they have to register for an ID card. Passports can be renewed at any time, irrespective of their expiry date.
The Liberal Democrats have launched a green taxation paper, The Green Switch, aimed at curbing carbon emissions and halting global warming. The main policies unveiled include:
Responding to the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report into the 7th July terrorist attacks, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Nick Clegg MP said:
A credibility crisis is building in Britain's political institutions, says Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell. Reform of the voting system and the House of Lords were "roadblocks" to getting people more involved in democracy, said Sir Menzies. He was speaking at a conference about democracy in the wake of the local elections, when turnout was 36%. The conference was organised by the Power Commission, which recently reported on how to get people more involved with politics.
