What do the public REALLY think about climate change?

I was contacted recently by a local student, Stephen Rennie, who is carrying out a survey on public attitudes to climate change for his university dissertation. he's asked me to publicise the survey, which I'm happy to do here. Stephen is going to let me have details of the response to the survey, and I'll put these up on my blog. So do have a look and fill in his survey!

Prime Minister's Questions

In the House of Commons on Wednesday for the first Prime Minister's Question time. I was No. 12 on the list, but the questions didn't move very quickly, so I didn't get called. I'll try again next week, as I'm wanting to raise a question about fuel poverty strategy.

I was interested to see the press reaction to the questions from David Cameron. I can honestly say that I thought Gordon Brown seemed well on top of the questions, and I certainly didn't think that it was a "Cameron win on points" as the media suggested. Of course, as a Labour MP, I suppose I'm expected to say that - but that really was the case, in my view.

The most significant event of the week, I think, was the announcement that the Prime Minister made on Tuesday about introducing measures to bring about greater Parliamentary control of the Executive, and democratic accountability over both Parliament and government. I'm pleased at such a clear expression of the new administration's commitment to the reform agenda.

Terrorism strikes again at home

I'd planned to put up a post about the public and political reaction to the new Labour leadership team (and it's been good, I'm pleased to say!), but events of the last few days in London and Glasgow, and elsewhere have obviously dominated the agenda. I was on my way on the train down to London when the news of the Glasgow attack came in. I happened to look at the news just about 5 minutes after the first reports, and although it took an hour or so for the picture to become clear, the significance of the news was pretty obvious to me straightaway. It was, I'm afraid, a reminder yet again, that the threat of terrorism is very real here in the UK - and you run the risk of being a victim whatever your ethnic or religious background, whatever your political views, and whatever part of the UK you live in. (And although not surprisingly it didn't make much news in Britain, there was a terrorism incident that very same day in Ibiza, emphasising it's a world-wide problem.)



Tackling terrorism isn't easy of course, and it needs to be met in many ways - certainly not with instant reactions, and I think that both Gordon Brown and the new Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, were right to emphasise that the response needs to be considered and