Andrew George
Promoting the
Politics of Courage
I’m running a positive campaign to restore decency and honesty to our politics. To build a brighter future. To combat those who want us to become more inward-looking, backward-looking, more self-absorbed. I’ll build a campaign for an outward-looking, forward-looking and compassionate country.
We’ve been misled by a privileged clique who’ve irresponsibly played on fears to stoke prejudice. We must get beyond the Brexit chaos they’ve dragged our country into. We must restore the things that matter for the sake of our children’s future – our NHS, our schools and the very sustainability of our planet.
Come and join a growing campaign team. We’re determined to win this seat back this time, to make the difference, to build a brighter future.
Many people say “you politicians are all the same”. That statement has never been more untrue. The choice here is stark:
Andrew George - Standing up for Cornwall
National campaigner, local campaigner, MP.
Andrew describes his role - "Seeking out the silent voices. Standing up to bullies. Fighting for justice”
Liberal Democrats - Building a brighter future
Grab every chance to immerse yourself in nature. It anchors us to the realities of life, outside the frantic and gizmo-dominated world we inhabit, and the pressures and stresses of daily living.
Many of us enjoyed the spectacles of the cosmos over the last 48 hours. Though more distant than the nature around us, it confounds and amazes just the same. Here are two examples of some of the things we do - and I've done in recent days - encountering the natural world:
1. I've continued reviewing the resilience of the local glow worm population. I've surveyed them on the same transect over the last 7 years. The results are mixed, but, worryingly they are generally in decline. These incredible creatures exist as larvae for around 3 years, before pupating for between 10-15 days to then emerge as adults. Adult glow worms CANNOT FEED - is it an astonishing example of selflessness in nature? - and as a result only live for between 14-21 days! Females (who do most of the glowing!) have this time to mate and lay 50-200 eggs before they die.
2. I also spent a couple of hours checking out a butterfly transect which has been surveyed for nearly a couple of decades. It happens to be the location where the internationally rare Silver-studded Blue (SSB) has a local stronghold. Like so many butterflies they have remarkable relationships with other creatures. Their caterpillars have a SPECIAL BOND with black ants, which protect them in their nests in exchange for a sweet fluid.
It's estimated (from these surveys) SSBs have experienced a 75% decline since last year. We didn't see any on this survey this time, but then they complete being "on the wing" by about now. But we did see and recorded many Gatekeepers, Meadow Browns, Small Whites and a few Painted Ladies, Red Admiral, Common Blue, Clouded Yellow and more. Many species have struggled this summer with limited nectar sources.
We've been fortunate this summer to have had unusually large swarms of African/ Mediterranean visitors - Painted Ladies, followed by Clouded Yellows. I'm always fascinated how the "offspring" of these visitors have IN THEIR NATURE THE KNOWLEDGE how to MIGRATE BACK to their winter grounds thousands of miles to the south! They are guided by genetically hard-wired behavioural responses to falling temperatures, shorter daylight hours, and the declining quality of their preferred host plants, to "pack their bags" and go!
Much like their avian compatriots - cuckoos (how on earth do they know how to get back home?), swifts, sand martins, swallows, house martins etc.
The UK may be one of the most nature-depleted nations on earth, but there are many who are fighting to restore our natural world.
Spending time in the presence of nature helps us reach back to the foundational web of our own existence and perhaps to our biological origins. Many view these encounters as an essential source to reinvigorate their inner strength. At least they don't cause detriment! 😊
Ask Andrew - St Just
📆 Saturday 22nd August
🕥 10:30am-12pm
📍 Market Square, St Just, then to St Just Market at the WI Hall.
To hear your concerns, and discuss issues which matter to you.
All welcome. Please pop along, say hello, and share thoughts.
📞 01736 339526
📧 andrew.george.mp@parliament.uk
South West Water (SWW) seems only to have built a reservoir of doubt and scepticism. Confidence in the company has been seeping away.
The private monopoly, which has set up by the Conservatives with legal backing to levy the highest water bills in the country, has finally drained the well of excuses they can use for poor performance.
This week they presented MPs with a plausible-sounding set of justifications for introducing the hosepipe ban. After all, we know there’s been an unprecedented period of dry weather, even after Biblical rainfall earlier this year.
However, SWW has chosen to abuse its risk-free monopoly status to invest in eye-watering salaries and bonuses for the top brass and generous shareholder dividends rather than in improving their services, the basic infrastructure, halting the millions of gallons leaking from their systems and building resilience in response to clear predictions of increased likelihood of the kind of drought conditions currently experienced.
I'll meet the new SWW CEO Keith Haslett later this month.
While our communities will no doubt soldier on, I'll explain (as I did to his predecessor) scepticism and criticism of the company has grown. We need to see a BIG change if the company wants to improve its standing with customers.
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Islanders must not be cut off this winter. Lifeline boat services to Scillonian off-islands are threatened following the folding of a key winter boating service.
I've already appealed to Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander MP, to step in to keep services running this winter while we seek a solution to provide a long-term sustainable solution. Off-islands (especially St Agnes and St Martins) will lose their lifeline service to the main island, St Marys in weeks. The service will not recommence till next March.
The last remaining winter boat service operator, St Agnes Boating, has experienced market failure. It has announced it can no longer operate during winter months. It had made the decision to close the company altogether, but has been persuaded to maintain a summer service by its staff during redundancy negotiations. This will leave off-islanders living on St Agnes and St Martins with no service, affecting children getting to secondary school, those needing transport to health appointments, to get to basic services and conduct normal life.
I've previously warned government ministers about the seriousness and vulnerability of lifeline transport services between Scillonian islands, including at a House of Commons debate on 17th March this year [link in chat below].
Islanders feared this would happen. I warned Ministers about the risk of market failure and spelled out the consequences. In other circumstances the government would step in. I wrote to the Transport Secretary again last month pointing out the unfairness; mainland bus services operate with subsidised £2 per journey bus fares in contrast to the £80 per journey cost for the Isles of Scilly equivalent during winter months. We feared this was unsustainable. Now the operator of this lifeline service to two of the islands has admitted he can no longer keep going.
I'm of course coordinating with the Council, which has been in discussion with officials in the Department for Transport about this crisis. i've also of course contacted the operating company, St Agnes Boating, run by Island Councillor, John Peacock.
I'll update on progress...
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Credit to St Agnes Boating for the photo
I really appreciate the new Fisheries Minister's visit to Newlyn this week. I know others will be cynical about our having to show around "the umpteenth Minster in as many years". However,I found Minister Stephen Morgan ( Office of Stephen Morgan MP ) didn't come with the kind of lazy preconceptions so often displayed in politics. I found him sincerely interested; keen to follow the science and the evidence. Which is exactly what we need, if we're to ensure a sustainable fishing industry; balancing marine conservation with the harvesting of an important, and sustainable source of healthy protein.
It was an early start too. Leaving home at 4.30am on my bike (I've again vowed to cycle as much as possible throughout the summer). Newlyn fish market has changed so much since I first took Ministers and shadow Ministers around the shout auctions in the early 1990s. It's very quiet now. Just the clicking of a keyboard and mouse in a side room while 45-55 anonymous bidders engage in the online clock auction.
I also remember coming back from a Select committee tour of fish markets in Scotland and Shetland 27 years ago to gleefully encourage Newlyn's then market operators to modernise and establish an electronic auction. After a long pregnant silence, I was nearly frogmarched off the premises! It took another couple of decades for the proposal to be accepted.
There's much on the agenda for the Minister. Cornwall and Scilly's fishing industries are well led. The Cornish Fish Producers Organisation (CFPO) is setting the pace for advances in science-based policy-making. But it still needs investment, better protection for low impact fishing methods within the 6-12 mile zone, and improvements in closer working relationships between scientists and the industry.
It's always telling that those who were so keen to use the fishing industry as the poster boys for divisive campaigns, like Brexit, are never to be seen when the hard work has to be done, including sorting out the mess they made of the fishing industry and the impediments they created to vital export markets.
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