SCOTLAND AND WALES UNITE TO BLOCK FRACKING. Scottish Statesman Pro-Independence News SNP And Plaid To Block Fracking Bill SHARE THIS EnvironmentFrackingPlaid CymruPoliticsScotlandSNP THE full Westminster contingent of SNP and Plaid Cymru MPs have jointly mounted an attempt to save the country from the nightmare of fracking. They are attempting to reject a ‘second reading’ of the Bill by the House of Commons, due to the current wording allowing fracking without consent underneath private property. On Monday they will try to throw it back to the House of Lords for amendment in the so-called ‘Ping Pong’ process when a Bill passes back and forth between the two Houses debating amendments to the Bill. The bill was introduced as one, which will promote investment in the UK’s national infrastructure – including transport, energy and land development. In reality it will allow fracking companies to put “any substance” under people’s homes and property and leave it there. It renders obsolete, ministerial claims that the UK has the best shale gas regulation in the world, and green campaigners said it is so loosely worded it could also enable the burial of nuclear waste. The Bill completed its House of Lords stages on 19 November 2014 and was presented to the House of Commons on 20 November 2014. This is known as the first reading and there was no debate on the Bill at this stage. the Government say The Infrastructure Bill makes provision for the government’s proposals to fund, plan, manage and maintain the UK’s national infrastructure. It includes a diverse range of measures, including: Strategic highways companies and the funding of transport services by land Control of invasive non-native species; Reform of planning law Provision for nationally significant infrastructure projects Giving members of communities the right to buy stakes in local renewable electricity generation facilities. Shockingly, the current version includes an amendment by Transport Minister Baroness Kramer, the Liberal Democrat guiding the bill through the Lords, that permits the “passing any substance through, or putting any substance into, deep-level land” and gives “the right to leave deep-level land in a different condition from [that before] including by leaving any infrastructure or substance in the land”. This is the same Baroness Kramer (or Susan to you and me) who amazingly claims in her Twitter profile to be a ‘grassroots campaigner’. Anti-fracking activist and author Naomi Klein said it flouted basic democratic rights and went on to explain, “What is animating the anti-fracking movement? Yes, it’s water. It’s also a defence of democracy. The fact the government is colluding with energy companies to force the right to frack underneath people’s homes without their permission flies in the face of the most common-sense definition of democracy and self-definition”. Sneakily, ministers rushed legal changes through parliament at the start of 2014, which removed the need to notify each home in an areas of plans relating to fracking. The heroes and heroine trying to save us from this dangerous and unjust situation are: Mike Weir SNP Elfyn Llwyd Plaid Cymru Stewart Hosie SNP Hywel Williams Plaid Cymru Pete Wishart SNP Jonathan Edwards Plaid Cymru Mr Angus Brendan MacNeil SNP Dr Eilidh Whiteford SNP Angus Robertson SNP The full text of their proposed Amendment reads as follows; “That this House declines to give a second reading to the Infrastructure Bill because it introduces a measure to allow companies involved in hydraulic fracking to drill and to carry out their operations beneath land without the consent of the owners, that it also make a substantial amendment to the law of heritable property in Scotland, which is a devolved matter, without seeking the agreement of the Scottish Parliament, and in so doing breaches the Sewel Convention, and, with regard to such developments in Wales, because it fails to grant any provision for the National Assembly for Wales to impose any condition they deem appropriate on such operations.” Interestingly, there is another proposed amendment to which Ed Milliband is a signatory but this does not attempt to reverse this unjust position, therefore they clearly support it. The Infrastructure Bill process (like any other) consists of the following; once a bill has completed all the parliamentary stages in both Houses, it is ready to receive royal assent. This is when the Queen formally agrees to make the bill into an Act of Parliament (law). The Queen can give Royal Assent in person but this has not happened since 1854. The Queen’s agreement to give her assent to a Bill is a formality. When royal assent has been given, an announcement is made in both Houses – by the Lord Speaker in the Lords and the Speaker in the Commons. At prorogation (the formal end to a parliamentary session), Black Rod interrupts the proceedings of the Commons and summons MPs to the Lords chamber to hear the Lords commissioners announce royal assent for the bills passed towards the end of the session, which had not received royal assent earlier in the year. The legislation within the bill may come into effect immediately, after a set period or only after a commencement order by a government minister. A commencement order is designed to bring into force the whole or part of an Act of Parliament at a date later than the date of the royal assent. If there is no commencement order, the Act will come into force from midnight at the start of the day of the royal assent. The practical implementation of an Act is the responsibility of the appropriate government department, not Parliament. There has been much written about the dangers of fracking which I will not re-cover here but for more info look up frack-off.org.uk/ and dangersoffracking/ It was great to see such a spirited turnout to oppose fracking today in Grangemouth, which I was able to watch on a stream supplied by the great folks over at independencelive.net. Let’s hope this intervention by the Scottish and Welsh nationalists can put at least a temporary halt to this disgusting Bill and will be the start of its defeat.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 12:58:54 +0000
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