Sutton and East Surrey Water's warning that "we will run out of water in the next 25 years" ('Warning water will run out', Sutton Guardian, 20 June) is a stark reminder why local Lib-Dem 'MPs should reconsider opposing clean air targets' (Sutton Guardian Letters, 20 June).
The reason why Lib-Dem MPs voted against their own party's policy in refusing to back the amendment to include decarbonisation targets to the Climate Change Bill was simple: 'political blackmail'. George Osborne backed by Tory backbenchers, particularly in the shires, had threatened that if Lib-Dems backed the amendment then he, Osborne, would ensure that money already lined up to back green projects could and would be diverted to non-green outcomes e.g. reducing the price of petrol at the pumps. In effect Osborne faced with a Lib-Dem backing for the amendment threatened the break-up of the Bill in its then form.
The Lib-Dem fear was that if they backed the amendment Osborne would take steps to ensure there was no possibility of any Climate Bill whatsoever until the next Parliament. What has become, then, of Cameron's "greenest government ever"?
David Murray
Wallington
- Send your letters to: letters@suttonguardian.co.uk.
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