David Cameron is on the brink of breaking his climate change promises. He’s under pressure from the Treasury to block bold new emissions targets that have been recommended by the government’s own climate change experts. We can’t let this happen. We need to tell him that we want him to keep his promise to lead “the greenest government ever.” Email David Cameron from this link: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

Here’s the text of an email we just sent out about this issue:

Dear friend,

David Cameron has always promised to tackle climate change, but it looks like he might be on the brink of ditching that promise. We need to move fast to stop that happening.

Government climate change experts are recommending bold but realistic new targets. But hardliners in the Treasury are trying to block their progress. [1] It’s being reported that the government is “deeply divided” on what to do next. [2] If we act now, we can make sure the decision goes the right way.

The next two weeks are vital. If Cameron and Clegg are hearing from thousands of us, they’ll know that breaking their promises on climate change would mean uproar.

Click here send a message to David Cameron and Nick Clegg: http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

Last year Cameron promised to tackle climate change, saying he wanted to lead “the greenest government ever”. [3] It would be a disaster if this promise was broken. If we water down our targets, we won’t bring down emissions fast enough to stop dangerous climate change. And if we’re watering down our own targets, how can we ever hope to persuade the rest of the world to take action?

It was people power that pushed the last government to agree to set targets to tackle climate change in the first place. [4] It was people power that pushed Cameron and Clegg to promise to make climate change a priority. Now people power can persuade Cameron and Clegg to keep their climate promise.

Email Cameron and Clegg now telling them to accept the expert advice:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

38 Degrees members have a great history of pushing the government to do better on the environment. Back in 2009, thousands of us phoned the then Climate Minister Ed Miliband just before he left for international climate talks. Last month, half a million of us helped stop government plans to sell off our forests. Just two weeks ago, tens of thousands of us voted to keep climate change a priority campaign for 38 Degrees. So now, let’s keep up the pressure and make sure Clegg and Cameron know they can’t water down our climate targets.

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/action-on-climate-change

Thanks for getting involved,

Johnny, Hannah, David and the 38 Degrees team

Notes:
[1] The really important recommendations are
- A domestic action fourth carbon budget of 1950 MtCO2e
- An indicative 2030 target to reduce emissions by 60% relative to 1990 levels (46% relative to 2009 levels)
- An adjustment of the second and third budgets to reflect the level of ambition in the intended budget for the non-traded sector, giving an economy-wide reduction of 37% in 2020 relative to 1990.
The full report can be seen here: http://www.theccc.org.uk/reports/fourth-carbon-budget

[2] The Guardian reports: “The news comes ahead of a crucial cabinet discussion of the UK’s climate change targets beyond 2020. There are still deep divisions between the Department of Energy and Climate Change, which is calling for tough targets to stimulate green growth, and the Treasury and the Department of Business, which argue that the current economic situation calls for less stringent targets in 10 years’ time.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/29/uk-global-green-investment-rankings

[3] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/14/cameron-wants-greenest-government-ever

[4] http://www.foe.co.uk/news/climate_law_world_first_16014.html

It’s worrying that this seems to bepart of a firm response used by several different Conservative MPs – does that mean it’s a coordinated smear? Or do some MPs just seriously believe that the only reason to oppose forest selloffs is being part of the Labour Party? In any case, just to be clear – 38 Degrees is independent of all political parties.

If your MP has been in touch to claim that 38 Degrees is part of the Labour Party, please let us know and please get back to them to set them straight.

Dear Charlotte,

Several 38 Degrees members have forwarded emails from you in which you describe 38 Degrees as an “Labour campaign website”.

38 Degrees is independent of all political parties. 38 Degrees members are supporters of many different political parties, or none at all. The reason we are running a campaign against the government’s proposals to sell off public forests is because 38 Degrees members asked us to when we consulted them.  You can read a lot more about 38 Degrees here: http://38degrees.org.uk/pages/about/

I understand that you strongly disagree with our stance on the issue of forests office, but I hope you will accept that it is possible to disagree with government policy without being part of the Labour Party. 38 Degrees has in the past campaigned against plenty of Labour Party policies – for example, when the Conservatives were in opposition, 38 Degrees members contacted their MPs asking them to vote in favour of a Conservative Opposition Day Motion calling for Parliament to support the 10:10 campaign. On that occasion, a couple Labour MPs accused 38 Degrees of being a Conservative organisation – I sent those MPs a message rather similar to this one!

I hope now I’ve been in touch to explain you will avoid sending inaccurate information about 38 Degrees to your constituents in the future. I’d be very happy to chat further about 38 Degrees if you would like to do so — my number is below.

Yours sincerely,

David Babbs

In November 38 Degrees handed in 60,000 messages to Ofcom asking them to get the bid in front of the Competition Commission. At Christmas an Emergency Petition was put forward pointing out that Jeremy Hunt would not make an impartial judge. On New Year’s Eve Hunt got Ofcom’s report and has been sitting on it ever since.

Murdoch in meetings with Hunt

It has now emerged that Hunt has been having meetings with Murdoch’s people. He could be trying to find ways to make a deal with Murdoch’s advisers.

Now it’s our turn to get involved. Together we can get in touch with our MPs and ask them to put pressure on Hunt to ensure the report goes public and into the hands of the Competition Commission. But we don’t have long.

This is a fast moving campaign that needs quick responses. We’ve already had success in standing up to Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB power grab and now we need to do it again. To take action click here:
http://www.38degrees.org.uk/hunts-secret-meetings

Here’s Robert Peston’s blog outlining more of the details: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2011/01/ofcom_says_news_corps_sky_bid.html

If you want to download it and use it on your blog, facebook, twitter or something else just click here to download it then let us know how you use in the comments below.

Here’s how the ad looks:

It has become clear that the Daily Mail group of newspapers (which includes the Metro) pulled out of running our ads at the last minute – they were meant to appear in the Metro this morning but there was no sign of them. We’re trying to find out what their excuses are and will update this blog post with the latest developments.

The Telegraph also refused to run the ad.

You can view the ad here: on page 28 of the i, page 18 of the Independent and page 14 of the Guardian.

Update 1: Left Foot Forward have more details here

Update 2: Here’s the ad

Update 3: If you want to complain about our ads being pulled you can email the editors at the papers that didn’t run the ads here: managingeditor@dailymail.co.uk (Daily Mail); telegraphenquiries@telegraph.co.uk (Daily Telegraph); news.london@ukmetro.co.uk (Metro)

Update 4: We’ve just heard from the Metro why they refused to print our ad. Here’s a copy of the email they sent:
“I gave it the OK before Christmas, but said it would have to be pulled if there was any controversy, and now Conservative HQ are on the attack over the ‘tax dodger’ claims.
“I don’t have a problem with the group advertising with us but obviously we don’t want to run anything that could be viewed as libellous.”
And here’s David’s response:
“It’s a bit implausible that they were genuinely worried about libel – we had been told that the adverts had been looked at and approved by their libel lawyers several days earlier, they’d been looked at and approved by 38 Degrees libel lawyers several days before that, and several other papers felt comfortable running them.”

But in the Comprehensive Spending Review, George Osborne failed to do this. He announced lots of cuts but no real new plans to deal with tax dodging. In fact, the cuts included cuts to tax inspectors who should be tackling tax dodging.

Meanwhile it has been revealed in a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary, also reported in the Daily Mail and The Telegraph, that three cabinet ministers including Osborne use loopholes to avoid paying tax. Many 38 Degrees members have asked: how we can trust our Chancellor to be doing all he can to close tax loopholes, when he’s profiting from the loopholes staying open?

Our campaign against tax dodging is likely to be a long one. We are going to have to keep the pressure on for some time to turn the tide on the government’s relaxed attitude to tax avoidance. Thousands of 38 Degrees Members emailed their MP to tell them that the Treasury should crackdown. Hundreds have suggested their ideas for our own tax cheats advert campaign spoofing the government’s own benefit cheats adverts. And our petition telling George Osborne it’s time he started paying his own tax is growing really fast.

Campaigning against tax dodging is not going to be an easy win, but we definitely can’t rely on the politicians to do it without us. People power is our best bet for winning this campaign.

Tens of thousands of 38 Degrees members emailed their MPs after the Conservative Minister, Jeremy Hunt, launched an attack on the BBC by announcing plans to cut the licence fee in 2012.

38 Degrees members have been adding their MPs’ replies to this page on our website, and we’ve now got replies from most MPs. Quite a few MPs have also sent their constituents a reply they received from the Culture Minister, Ed Vaizey, after writing to him about the BBC.

Here’s the letter the Minister, Ed Vaizey has been sending to MPs:

]]> http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/08/19/bbc-under-threat-the-ministers-reply/feed/ 3 http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/07/19/are-you-proudofthebbc/ http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/07/19/are-you-proudofthebbc/#comments Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:50:02 +0000 matt.l http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/?p=1261

On Friday, Jeremy Hunt announced that he plans to cut the BBC’s licence fee. This new attack comes just a few days we won the campaign we fought together to save 6Music.

The new Culture Minister is keen to make a start on weakning the BBC, however. This weekend, he said he was thinking about plans to cut the license fee. The new government are dipping their toes in the water, to see what sort of reaction they get. They’re under pressure to start weakening the BBC from all sides: media billionaires like Rupert Murdoch can’t wait to see the end of proper public broadcasting in the UK.

Today, there’s been a massive, people-powered response to the Culture Minister’s comments. Thousands of us have already written to our MPs, asking them to contact Jeremy Hunt and stop him going ahead with the plans – click  here to join in. If you’re on Twitter, you can follow #proudoftheBBC trending right now.

With 6 Music, we’ve proved once that when we work together we can defend the BBC from its enemies. Now we need to come together again to make sure this new threat to the BBC doesn’t go ahead.

I’m on the train on the way down to see meet everyone that has been campaigning hard over the last few months to ban secret lobbying. The campaign has been a huge success, thanks to local pressure now the Labour, Lib Dem, Mebyon Kernow, Green and UKIP candidates have all pledged to back a ban on secret lobbying – only George has refused. Instead he tried to use spin to attack the campaign of being a “lib dem slur”. A ridiculous accusation since it’s a grass roots campaign that has successfully persuaded 5 candidates from different parties to back a ban on secret lobbying.

In response to Eustice’s spin 38 Degrees members have started a “back the ban” petition at http://www.38degrees.org.uk/george-sign-the-pledge urging George, who used to be Cameron’s spin-doctor and recently left his job at a top London lobbying firm, to join his local rivals and support the ban on secret lobbying.

It’s such an important campaign because today big businesses can pay lobbyists millions of pounds to get their views represented and to secure influence of politicians. Today we have no right to know who is meeting who. If we’re to regain trust

in politics we need to stamp out back room secret meetings and bring transparency to Westminster.

Tonight, I’ll be at the hustings where Eustice will come face to face with all his local rivals and hundreds of members of the public keen to find out why he won’t support a ban on secret lobbying.

I’ll be blogging, tweeting (twitter.come/38_degrees) and updating the Facebook page www.facebook.com/peoplepowerchange throughout the day.

On Friday, 58 senior economists published two open letters in the Financial Times arguing for a delay in spending cuts until 2011. The world-class economists say that any measures to trim the budget deficit this year could pull the country back into recession and they believe that “the first priority must be to restore robust economic growth”.

Now, 38 Degrees has teamed up with the Trades Union Congress to put pressure on Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer and George Osborne, Shadow Chancellor, to publicly commit themselves to not making damaging cuts before it’s clear that the economy really has turned the corner towards recovery. We’ve already had a brilliant response: thousands of us have signed the petition since Friday.

Join in to protect our economic recovery and avoid a disastrous “double-dip” recession. Click here to sign the petition to the Chancellor and Shadow Chancellor http://www.38degrees.org.uk/dont-risk-the-recovery ]]> http://blog.38degrees.org.uk/2010/02/22/dont-risk-our-economic-recovery/feed/ 0