Bonus Blog

I was delivering leaflets this morning for the elections in June, and I was stopped twice to talk politics. The first person called me over and asked if I was canvasing. We still canvas in the sense that we look for opinions from the public, but we don't canvas in the sense of asking for votes. There are less and less party workers in this area for any party and taking numbers at polling stations is usually for show, not to knock on doors later in the evening. I am sure there are areas where this still goes on but not here. Today I was leafleting but I am always happy to listen to opinions.

He said that the only reason he was not working was because of the government and the quarry tax. I am not an expert in quarry tax but I do know that the landfill tax is there to decrease the amount of waste that we produce and increase recycling. I mentioned that the quarry tax may serve the purpose of conserving the earth's resources. I also mentioned that sand is a commodity that does not regenerate and we have to use the earth's resources wisely.

At this point he told me that everything had sand in it for building, we weren't talking at the same level and he couldn't continue the conversation. I came home to look up quarry tax and the first thing I learn is that it provides funds for nature reserves - try googling quarry tax yourself. The next thing I learn is that there are adverse effects on the environment from quarrying. I had guessed something along those lines, but I also know that we do need quarries. There must be a balance somewhere.

I did not think that I had said anything wrong but the main point of this conversation is not to try to defend Government action. They can defend it themselves. However I will give this gentleman the opportunity to reply to this blog. He can tell us the benefits of the quarrying industry. At least he took the time to speak with me, and now he has the opportunity to tell the world what he thinks.

The second person who wanted to talk politics with me criticised Europe. We agreed that trade was necessary and there is a whole lot of politics that goes with trade. The involvement of banks to exchange our money, the taxations on trade, I am sure you can create a long list yourself. Then we agreed on environmental issues being important. Then the action of government departments was important within Europe. I said I would give him a copy of my recent blog on Europe, and he too can have the right to reply to this blog.

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