ELECT PEOPLE NOT POLITICIANS!

Welcome to the blog of a new political party that wants to do things differently! We are featuring more information about our policies.

‘My view is that dialogue is the foundation of society. It is the foundation of communities and that of families. Dialogue is where people care enough about themselves to care about others to a similar degree. It is not a question of agreeing with each other. If one takes the time to understand the position taken by someone we disagree with, then we can expect them in return to take the time to fully understand our own position.’

Marc Wilkinson – EDINBURGHPEOPLE Party Founder & Leader

Climate & Environment Policy

Policy: Let’s slow Net Zero. Reverse and stop the implementation of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods. Evidence from around the country shows that these are making car journeys longer. Forcing traffic on the main arteries is causing congestion and more pollution. The Net Zero targets are too ambitious and are coming at too great a cost. It is important to evaluate which policies are working and which are not before they are rolled out.

Explanation: We agree that climate change is important. But at the moment, people in our society hold different views on how to tackle it depending on their view of whether or not it is caused by human activity (and so whether we can control it, or can only focus instead on adaptation). While everyone agrees that there has been a 1ºC increase in temperature since the Industrial Revolution, many disagree about whether this has been caused solely by human activity (pointing to the rapid increase in recent global temperature, and computer models showing future predictions), or more by factors that cause warming and cooling outwith our control (pointing to solar activity, Earth’s orbital cycles, and the water vapour associated with those weather patterns, and historical/prehistoric climate change). The disagreement causes severe division at a society-level because one ‘side’ sees the other as either a dangerous threat to the measures it believes are necessary – or on the other hand, an unnecessary threat to its current way of life, including human rights and democracy.

Instead of debating the point about the main cause of climate change (which requires converting people to a single set of beliefs), we believe we can create a consensus for agreement on an environmental policy that will effectively tackle both sets of risks that people are worried about – the risk of doing lasting damage to our human rights and democracy while still failing to adapt to the naturally changing climate, and the risk of failing to prevent what is a controllable disaster). We want to take whatever steps are best to protect our environment, in a way that is acceptable to everyone and does not undermine personal freedom and human rights. We are trying to do this through what we see as a better way of doing democracy (see final paragraphs of this statement).

We believe everyone values the quality of their natural environment (its health, its safety, and so on). The overwhelming majority of people in the UK value wildlife and nature for its own sake as well, with many from left and right belonging to wildlife organisations.

If elected, we will ask people to accept the theoretical possibility that the other ‘side’ is right about their view of the main risks posed by climate change and our approach to it (we can enter this risk as a small one, for them) and we will present harms-benefit analyses of potentially agreeable measures to tackle climate change (both mitigation and adaptation) that do not damage our civil rights and cause minimal negative effects to our way of life. In this way, we think we can travel faster to achieving what everyone will agree are good measures.

To give an example of the sort of measure we think everyone will agree on, we know that clean seas are the biggest carbon sink there is. A healthy ocean is an ecosystem in which phytoplankton on the ocean’s surface draw CO2 from the atmosphere, which migrating zooplankton swim up at night to eat. When they die, those zooplankton that aren’t hoovered up the food chain will fall to the seabed. This natural process – a byproduct of healthy oceans – sequesters CO2 in the seabed for thousands of years. Benthic bacteria sequester 200 million tons of carbon dioxide into the biomass on an annual basis.

We think we should find out what actions work to reduce man-made environmental toxins and pollution, as these are emissions which are harmful to human health and to the environment without any benefit. Rather than policing people’s individual behaviour, we think it would be a better idea to properly fund and equip environmental regulatory bodies, so that they can enforce clean water legislation, with serious penalties for those who repeatedly break the law. We believe this measure would be extremely effective in reducing carbon emissions and would be acceptable to everyone because of its side-benefits (cleaner drinking water, pleasant environment, good for health because of reduced toxins in the food-chain and reduced exposure to environmental toxins, good for human leisure activities such as swimming, good for wildlife and nature).

As well as using the power of healthy natural ecosystems, if elected, we would ask the government to invest in technological innovations that will help reduce the use of new minerals (e.g. lithium, zinc, etc): besides bringing down carbon and other emissions, this would have the benefit of helping to tackle human exploitation and protect wildlife and ecosystems, as well. By developing these bioproducts, we can also reduce our exposure to harmful substances (health benefit), and help contribute to cleaner water and hence cleaner, healthier seas (multiple benefit, as described above.)

We believe that, done in this way, protecting and enhancing natural carbon sinks is a good measure for nature and climate, while also accepting that CO2 in itself is not a toxin. In the Netherlands, farmers pump CO2 into greenhouses to increase the yield of their crops. And higher CO2 in an arid area will enable more plants to grow. So it’s simplistic to think of carbon dioxide emission itself as the enemy: our enemy is extreme climate change and the destruction of our natural world.

If elected, we would seek to fund research into which other measures could work to everybody’s satisfaction (without harming our civil rights). We think people should have a say in decisions that affect them: this means carrying out a harms-benefits analysis for different possible measures, bearing in mind that the overall shared aim is to have a healthy planet to leave the next generation, at the least possible disruption to human rights and normal life. Some measures that are intended to reduce emissions are not very effective overall when all aspects are taken into account (such as electric vehicles). Others are ‘benefits’ that the majority of people may not actually value – like the ability to replace a defunct computer every couple of years. That’s probably something that everyone would be prepared to swap for other benefits, if we can provide a good alternative, whereas the freedom to choose when and where you wish to travel is impossible to replace with an alternative.

Deep sea mining is now being proposed as a way to access cheap minerals for use in the manufacture of personal electronic items. This will disturb the carbon sink of bacteria on the seabed. An alternative measure – following analysis and a vote – could be to ban deep-sea mining and to legislate for longer-life personal electronic items, and for the right-to-repair these; and to explore possibilities for using recycled materials, or alternative materials, instead (https://phys.org/news/2024-06-deep-sea-threatens-life-environmentalists.html.)

If elected, our candidates will work to make sure that the people have informed consent as to which steps should be taken, and which might or might not really be in our best common interest. Part of this means giving proper weighting to the important function of clean rivers and oceans, and of thriving natural ecosystems – rather than relying on huge corporations to offer us costly artificial sequestration solutions while natural sequestration is unnecessarily destroyed by them elsewhere, or buying into ‘carbon trading’ (which allows the destruction of important ecosystems in some areas, if the corporation can buy off a pristine ecosystem somewhere else and hold this in the scales).

We want our government to fund research into new technologies. We already have technology to create bio-plastics made of seaweed or hemp. Some other possibilities that might turn out to work include the idea of growing phytoplankton in ocean farms, and harvesting their oil (to replace mineral-based oil: this oil would be carbon-neutral). Also, we would support research into making existing renewables (solar, wind) greener over their life-cycle (for example, exploring alternative materials, which could be non-mineral). Rather than backing specific possibilities, we are backing the right of the people to be informed of the costs and benefits of all the proposed measures and plans, and to have their best interest represented by their elected representatives.

This is why we say that we should ‘slow down’ on Net Zero – not because the climate and environment are not important, but because it is vitally important that we spend more time to properly assess the problems and solutions and agree on the right steps to take. In the long run, this will mean making fewer costly mistakes: instead, we will reach the right decisions earlier than we would if we were to rush in. We care deeply about nature and the environment and share a belief in the importance of protecting the planet.

We are seeking a way forwards that a large majority will agree on. We are doing this with a new kind of party that is not a normal political party with career politicians. Instead, our party size is limited to representing the five Edinburgh constituencies. None of our candidates aim to become ‘career politicians’ due to this intentionally limited nature of the party, and because our constitution requires all elected representatives to be re-selected by the party members in their constituency (if they wish to stand at the next election). Our whole ethos is that our candidates are answerable to their constituents and to their own conscience. Our membership rates start at £0.

Our belief is that the people of each different city or rural region should form their own ‘PEOPLE’ party, so that they can elect independent representatives to vote on their behalf at Westminster. By pooling resources in a group of neighboring constituencies, and being founded on the principle that the people must be properly informed of ALL the harms and benefits of all decisions that affect them, with their MPs working for their genuinely best, shared, interest as outlined above, new ‘PEOPLE’ parties can make sure that the people of their area are properly represented.

We are such a new party that we did not have time to register with the Electoral Commission, so you need to remember our names when you go to vote tomorrow. Please vote for us if you’re in an Edinburgh constituency: don’t waste your vote just because you’re fed up with the way politics is. Come and help us change it…

Our full candidate list is as follows:

Edinburgh North & Leith: Caroline Waterloo

Edinburgh East & Musselburgh: Jane Gould

Edinburgh South: Mark Rowbotham

Edinburgh South West: Marc Wilkinson (Party Leader)

Edinburgh West: Nick Hornig

‘‘My view is that dialogue is the foundation of society. It is the foundation of communities and that of families. Dialogue is where people care enough about themselves to care about others to a similar degree. It is not a question of agreeing with each other. If one takes the time to understand the position taken by someone we disagree with, then we can expect them in return to take the time to fully understand our own position.’

Marc Wilkinson

EDINBURGHPEOPLE Party Founder & Leader

Be part of something new: VOTE for us! And join us – although only Edinburgh, Leith & Musselburgh residents have voting rights, you can still join to support us if you are resident anywhere in the UK.

With hope –

EDINBURGHPEOPLE

More about us:

The aim of EDINBURGH PEOPLE is to represent the common interest of Edinburgh, Leith and Musselburgh People first and foremost. We will:

• give a voice to the people of Edinburgh, Leith and Musselburgh.
• make sure that voice is listened to.
• make sure that it is acted upon; and
• make sure it secures the improvements demanded.

The strategy of EDINBURGH PEOPLE is to achieve our aim ourselves, without relying on career politicians. We operate a ‘one person one vote’ system whereby members both propose policy and vote on policy. Members also vote to select their candidates and, in due course, will vote to reselect their sitting Councillors, MPs and MSPs.

At the launch of our party, we had a small number of members, hence we voted on a small number of policies. 

Media enquiries: info@edinburghpeople.org

Read more →: EDINBURGHPEOPLE.blog