Shouldn’t MPs know better?
In an article in today’s Manchester Evening News MP Graham Stringer is quoted as saying
The government, Health and Safety Executive and Environment Agency have spent two years looking at the safety implications and the pollution implications of fracking and came to the conclusion that with the right regulation, which they have got, it is a completely safe process. While local people have to be properly consulted about their views, I think it’s a real opportunity to create jobs and start to reduce the price of domestic fuel.
Rather alarmingly for an MP who is also a member of the government’s science and technology select committee :
- He obviously has no idea of the state of regulation.
- He obviously hasn’t looked into the potential impacts of fracking on local communities
- He obviously hasn’t researched the realistic impact of fracking on local employment prospects
- He has no idea of the consensus on the impact of shale gas on gas prices
For somebody in his position to make the claim that fracking is “a completely safe process” and follow it up with a such litany of inaccurate observations and claims for such spurious “benefits” would be almost unbelievable if it were not the standard tactic of just about every hack politician in this country. It would appear that the industry’s political lobbyists are worth their weight in gold.
Do you not think we deserve much better from those who represent us? We do.
