Just to show that Skuds isn’t the only one who can use song titles for his posts….

We have been a touch busy recently and, among other things, we spent a very rainy Saturday last week helping the Huddersfield Friends of the Earth Group in their protest against EU Biofuels targets.

(I’m holding the % and a T, Rob has T and I – luckily the driving rain and wind stopped long enough for the photocall!)

We were asking passers-by to sign post cards asking their MEPs to vote against a legally binding target for Biofuel use.  The problems this will cause are many: deforestation, habitat loss, lack of food availability in the developing world, but the one that got most cards signed was, inevitably, closer to home. More grain was harvested last year than ever before but, because so much was used for Biofuels, the cost of bread and animal feed has actually increased. Tell people that Biofuels are partly to blame for the cost of their weekly shop and they were queueing in the rain to sign up!

Even if your local Friends of the Earth group hasn’t organised any postcard signings or other events you can still let your MEP know how you feel via the FoE website http://www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/biodiversity/press_for_change/biofuels/index.html the link is at the bottom of the page.  I sent off my email and even got a couple of replies. One was a fairly measured reply from one of the Conservative MEPs and the other was, well, from UKIP.  I nearly coughed up my own skull at this reply since it was basically a rant about how corrupt and undemocratic the European parliament was. I’m not sure if I’m brave enough, or stupid enough, to reply to this guy but what I really want to know is what are UKIP doing getting themselves elected as MEPs?  I assume he draws whatever allowances he is entitled to so this must, in UKIP’s mind make him corrupt, and since he must have been elected I would like to know how much he paid for the votes he got (since that must be his proof of the ‘undemocratic’ dig). Mind you these guys believe that wind turbines will alter prevailing wind currents in our climate so I don’t think I will take their advice on renewable energy….