Chris Davies MEP launches Lib Dem election manifesto

Chris Davies MEP at Rochdale Online office

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Euro MP Chris Davies has completed his visit to Rochdale having launched the Liberal Democrats' local manifesto. Mr Davies enjoyed a tour of the Rochdale Online office in the afternoon and was able to spend some time on the Rochdale Online Message Board, answering the questions that some of the message board users had posted, after speaking to Rochdale Online about his role as an MEP and offering his thoughts on the environment.

Before being shown around the Rochdale Online website, Mr Davies launched the Lib Dem manifesto for the upcoming local election. "I've come to Rochdale to give my Liberal Democrat colleagues a helping hand and to help launch the election manifesto for the local elections in the first week of May," he told Rochdale Online.

Mr Davies spoke about the transition from working as a Member of Parliament, having served Littleborough, Wardle and Milnrow for two years from 1995 to 1997, to the European roll that he serves today. "I'm a European MP now and it's really a contrast. I spent ten years trying to get elected to the House of Commons because you want to play a part in creating a better society and a better Britain.

"I was a high-profile bi-election winner who was a very active MP for the twenty months I had. But in all honesty one of my greatest memories of that time is the frustration. You go through the motions in the House of Commons. Our democratic system in the UK is so geared to the fact that the Government of the day will win - the opposition can have its say but the government will have its way.

"I wouldn't want to go back to the House of Commons now, if I had the chance. I've been European member for eight years now, it has law shaping powers and there isn't anybody pulling our strings as you will find in the House of Commons. The European Parliament allows individual members to have a much bigger input.

He continued by talking about his specialist subject, the environment. Mr Davies is the environment and public health spokesman for the Lib Dems in the European Parliament. He is a firm believer that the world must change its ways before that world is destroyed: "Across the world there is a rising population, habitat destruction, increasing consumption, growing emissions of global warming gases, and we are rapidly using up mineral resources. We are experiencing a faster rate of extinction of species during this period since the end of the dinosaurs."

He spoke about what individuals can do to help the environment: "In our own homes there is of course a lot more that we can be doing to recycle, to reduce our energy consumption and to reduce our carbon footprint. The first thing that people should be doing is measuring what happens in their own homes: measuring how many miles they drive each year and how much it costs them, measuring how much electricity and gas they use, how much waste do we put in our bins? Measure that and then see what a difference you can make

"However you've got to make life easy for people and that's where the politics should come in, where local and national government comes in. Services like recycling should be available to people on their doorstep.

"It's up to the local authority to set some targets in terms of its carbon footprint. There is so much more that local authorities could do but we have a very centrally controlled system in this country and local authorities are constrained in the way that they can raise money and the way in which they can spend money.

However, Mr Davies was quick to indicate that local governments and the national government had to make things easier for people it terms of reducing their waste disposal and to make recycling available to people on their doorstep. He also indicated that local governments often have their hands tied when it comes to generating finances for environment friendly schemes. "Rochdale might say, for example, that we want to be carbon neutral by ten years time. Whatever ambitions Rochdale might have for something like that, it will find it difficult to financially make that goal achievable without central government support," he said.

Click the link to view the message board thread where Mr Davies has posted his reponses to questions asked by message board users:

• www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/Forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5490