In this farewell letter, Giles Chichester, outgoing Conservative South West MEP, from Ottery St Mary, gives his views on the threat of 'Eurosceptic obsessives' to Tory general election prospects, how the EU should respond to Putin's Russia and the importance of nuclear energy:
Some big decisions lie ahead for us in the UK, starting with the Scottish referendum. For the rest of the UK, i.e. we English, the Cornish, the Welsh, the Northern Irish and, let us not forget, all the disfranchised Scots living outside Scotland, this is a matter of great importance where head and heart may point in opposite directions. One could argue that we would be better off not subsidising Scottish socialist spending levels from our taxes and we would rectify the present electoral distortion in the House of Commons by getting rid of all those Scottish Labour MPs. Yet I feel both we and the Scots would be diminished by a separation and divorce, and for no good reason that I can see.
The next decision will be the General Election in 2015. I think that is a no brainer. Who could possibly think it a good idea to vote in the Labour Party when we haven't finished clearing up the mess they left behind in 2010. This Government has made good progress on reducing the budget deficit they inherited and tackled reform in important areas such as welfare, education and even the NHS. But Conservative election prospects could be knocked off course by a minority vote of Eurosceptic obsessives letting in Labour by default.
Looking to the wider world we are confronted by at least two serious challenges. We know about fundamentalist Islam because we have struggled to contain it for decades before and after the 9/11 attack on the New York World Trade Centre Twin Towers. I supported going into Iraq in 2003 and Afghanistan in 2001 and 2006 based on what we knew at the time. However, we must face the fact that there was only one limited success, namely the short incursion in 2001, supported by significant elements of Afghan's population and followed by an early withdrawal. Have we made things worse by intervening in 2003 and 2006? More recently was it better to leave Syria alone?
The second challenge I have in mind is events playing out in Eastern Ukraine. Watching the Berlin Wall fall in 1989 I thought the great post-war division of our continent was ending. It doesn't quite seem that way now.
Unfortunately the EU is being assailed from within by doubt and dissenting political movements instead of standing firmly united against Putin's Russia which respects only equal and opposite force. Talking of dissidents, if Mr Farage had his way and the UK retreated into splendid off-shore isolation I would fear for peace and prosperity in a Europe denied our historical balancing role.
A lesser but related challenge could lie in the nature of the EU response to this Russian foreign policy adventurism. It is clear to me that we should act to reduce our dependence on Russia for gas, oil and uranium to the extent that Mr Putin no longer feels able to use energy as a bargaining ploy. This links in to the question of climate change and what our policy response should be. Reducing dependence on fossil fuels would reduce CO2 release to the atmosphere and make the prophets of doom slightly happier.
To me it makes sense to promote energy conservation and efficiency. It is not widely appreciated that we in the EU have steadily been improving both by reducing energy intensity since the 1970s energy crises. Energy intensity is the ratio between energy and gross domestic product (gdp) and our energy intensity is now below 70% of what it was 40 years ago. We must do much more but this trend shows it is achievable.
But we have to do more than be efficient. We have to embrace technologies that will replace fossil fuels. First, by going for nuclear energy in a big way up to the level of base load generation and consumption. Second, by tackling the 40% of CO2 emissions from the transport sector through switching to electric or hybrid cars. By all means promote renewable energy but recognise that it is an essentially inefficient, expensive and predictably unpredictable energy source which can only tinker at the margins of electricity supply.
The antics of the proponents of renewable energy bring to mind the courtiers of King Canute who tried to persuade him he could overcome the forces of nature. I have spent 20 years in the European Parliament listening to the green worshippers at the temple of renewable energy as the one true source of energy and the solution to almost everything. I remain unconvinced.
As MEP for the South West I have had a very interesting 20 years and I am most grateful to those who elected me and those with whom I have worked over the years. Despite the challenges I have mentioned above I remain confident that we will solve whatever problems fate has to throw at us in the future. So, having made my contribution, I'm off to pastures fresh or, to be more accurate, the open sea.
Over and out!!
Giles Chichester MEP
Conservative MEP for South West England and Gibraltar
