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Hi All,

Here’s our Winter newsletter:

It’s been a while since you last heard from us, when we were as high as kites as we put Robert Courts Watch behind us and set MP Watch Witney running in its place. Our silence does not betoken inactivity, although it does reflect, in part, the pall of black despair which settled upon us after the American election and COP29. It seemed hope would be lost beyond January 20th, but then it also seemed that we had no choice but to step back up to our chosen plate and battle on. We hope you will all agree.

Over here in Britain, by contrast, we have elected a government which may not be perfect but in climate terms is hugely better than their opposition. (Having said that, it’s desperately worrying that they’ve gone so big on carbon capture and storage and see the MP briefing from MP Watch: https://www.mpwatch.org/climate-briefing).

In Ed Miliband we have a Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero who knows his stuff and seems to have a backbone. However, he is struggling in a world in which, although overt climate change denial may be going out of fashion, it seems to be increasingly acceptable to treat the science of climate as a matter of opinion. The leadership of His Majesty’s Opposition are a case in point but it’s not exclusive to their party, or even to politicians. In other words, we have a very real fight on our hands in a casually (or wilfully) ignorant world - and it’s a literally existentially important fight. Onward we are, therefore, obliged to go.

And we have a new MP, Charlie Maynard. Charlie ‘gets’ climate change, and the need for more urgency in addressing it, but he’s in a minority party in a parliament where the government has an overwhelming majority. Notwithstanding, we are in a new world where we have the ear of an MP interested in, and sympathetic to, our cause. We believe that, working with Charlie, we will be able to inch climate change higher up the agenda in both Westminster and Witney constituency, which it is our remit to do.

As yet of course, we’re all (Charlie included) feeling our way forward, but we’ve made one big stride in that direction and established solid precedent for further such steps, ongoing. On October 12th we held a public meeting with Charlie, focused exclusively on climate. This meeting was warm, collected and intelligent, and Charlie has agreed to similar quarterly meetings ongoing. We’ve therefore booked four Saturday mornings in 2025 from 11 am - January 11th, April 12th, July 5th & October 11th. The venue will be divulged much nearer the time, and we will inform this list.

Here’s a picture of the meeting, below, with Hugo in the chair and Charlie in full flood.

And we’re campaigning on the pavements of the constituency just as we did before, talking to people about climate change and the politics thereof. The picture below was taken immediately before the election in the US which may account for the optimistic cheerfulness. Left to right we’re Sheila, Caroline, Henriette and Hugo, all steering group members. The lady in blue is a passer-by who is having her ear bent.

Sadly, the sandwich boards have been retired…

We also presented MP Watch Witney at a recent Witney Eco Forum, to explain ourselves and our abrupt evolution into a happier creature than Robert Courts Watch.

Buoyed by the fact that Oxfordshire now has only ‘progressive’ MPs in every constituency, we’re trying to expand our reach. We initiated an endeavour to better connect climate activism across our county in collaboration with a great many Oxon organisations and people. We’re also trying to establish MP Watch groups in other Oxfordshire constituencies so if you are in one now and know anyone (yourself included) who could be interested in forming a group please, please get in touch. Our new email address is mpwatchwitney@gmail.com and we will respond.

The MP Watch approach is distinct, different, and focused and has proven itself effective as well as interesting. MP Watch Witney will support any new group and there’s also a national MP Watch organisation (www.mpwatch.org) which offers training and a very encouraging network of imaginative activists up and down the land.

For those of you who remain Witney constituents: If you feel motivated to help, please send an email. We’re a small but friendly group and you will be very welcome. Since the general election we’re able to be far more positive and closer to national politics, which is where it really matters. Climb aboard, if this grabs you!

If you’re looking for some immediate action to take, please write about climate change to Ed Miliband with a copy to Charlie (or your own MP) or vice versa. (Ed.miliband.mp@parliament.uk and Charlie.maynard.mp@parliament.uk or, if you prefer a proper letter, at: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA). Personal communications are effective and will be noted. Write about CCS, perhaps, using the information in the MP Watch briefing linked above, or any other climate issue you feel particularly concerned about. MPs do take note of constituents’ views, but they have to know about them first! it’s our democratic duty to tell them.

We have managed to convert our old website (robertcourtswatch.com) into www.mpwatchwitney.org. Among other things, you will find there our short obituary of a very good friend, ‘Paddy’ Coulter, who died recently and is very much missed. R.I.P. Paddy.

Finally: Some of you now live in Bicester and Woodstock or Banbury constituencies. You’re very welcome to remain on MP Watch Witney’s supporters’ list, of course, and so receive our quarterly newsletter, but if you’d rather not, please let Hugo know via mpwatchwitney@gmail.com.

We wish all of you good, concerned folk a Happy Christmas & New Year, as always.

Hugo (for MP Watch Witney)