It was encouraging to hear the list of all of the new "green" areas where jobs are being created but distressing that further nuclear jobs will exist. I am not the most anti nuclear person ever, however it is not my first preference. It is good though that he is reiterating that there will be no public subsidy - this is definitely not an industry that we should be championing.
It was refreshing to hear him mention China's desire for renewable energy. The press always paint them as a country that is just consuming and being as unclean as we were in our industrial revolution. Yes they have tons and tons of carbon emissions, but that doesn't mean they aren't also developing cleaner energy sources and aren't also looking to the future.
It was also good to hear how they intend to help those struggling to pay their fuel bills, however it just doesn't sound enough, I think they should be going further. As someone who firmly believes in the free market this is difficult for me to suggest, but I feel that they should be intervening more. Energy, like water, is something I feel shouldn't be left to market forces, I don't see the competition as particularly helpful and it should have more legislation to protect the average consumer - not just the very worst off. Maybe I am just not looking at the proposals enough.
I really liked his pro European comments, there has been too much anti Europe coverage in the media recently with all of their problems, however like it or not we need them. As such we would be much weaker if we let the EU - I am glad that the Lib Dems wont let this happen.
He was also spot on when he spoke about compromise - people may not understand the fact that the Lib Dems have compromised in Government but pluralism is something that should be championed, not just in words but also in actions.
This is actually the first speech by Chris that I've managed to get all the way through (I don't follow the environmental agenda as closely as I should). I was pleasantly surprised by it, especially the strong finish.
I will hopefully find more and post more tomorrow - I've only really focused on the main players at the moment (cabinet ministers that I know + party president, hopefully tomorrow I'll listen to Michael Moore and a few of the other, lesser publicised MPs), but now it's getting late!
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