Take a deep breath... Sarah Ludford reminds me of what I left behind...

I have mentioned in the past that I still receive press releases from Sarah Ludford, London's Liberal Democrat MEP, which I read not merely as a courtesy, but as someone interested on what our Parliamentarians are doing in Brussels and, regrettably, Strasbourg (Single Seat, anybody?).

Today, Sarah has commented on the declaration of the UK Supreme Court in a case brought by environmental campaign group Client Earth that the UK government has breached European air pollution rules. The Court decided to refer the case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for further clarification.

She notes;

The Supreme Court declaration that the government has breached the EU Air Quality Directive is regrettable but necessary. Instead of acting swiftly to protect the public from harmful levels of air pollution, a Tory Environment Minister just last week shamefully tried to water down EU air quality rules and the Tory Mayor of London drags his feet.

Air quality is something that does resonate strongly with this country-dweller, especially as I lived in London for forty-five years before migrating to mid-Suffolk.

The notes to editors that are linked to her press release make for grim reading;

1. Estimates of the number of premature deaths per year in London due to long-term exposure to air pollution range from about 3,000 to 8,000 (based on 2005 data).
2. 86% of the worst areas in the country for nitrogen dioxide pollution and 87% of the worst areas in the country for particulate pollution are in London.
3. More than 320,000 children attend schools in London within 150 metres of roads carrying more than 10,000 vehicles a day. This is the level of traffic that has been found to increase risk of developing or exacerbating asthma in children.

No wonder that I developed a persistent, hacking cough as years of working in Central London took their toll. It's much less annoying these days, although my weekly trips to London don't help. 

Well said, Sarah, well said...

This committee thing, explain it to me again, will you?

Having now spent a day in the metropolis that is London, it is time to head for home.  It has, I must confess, been rather fun, although not necessarily for any reason I might have envisaged when I agreed to come.

It is still somewhat unclear as to why I was invited to attend the International Relations Committee away day, although I flatter myself to suggest that I was of some use in their discussions. I'm not a policy wonk, nor do I have a long record of activity and participation in ALDE or the Liberal International. However, I do feel that it is imperative to broaden and deepen involvement in the Party's international activity, and I know enough to make a case.

I did, it is true, wonder out loud about the purpose and function of the International Relations Committee, and whilst those with a greater record of engagement will have some very good answers to those points, I hope that I might have given the Committee some food for thought.

I then had tea with a dear friend, before meeting up with Ros and heading for dinner. It is slightly quirky, meeting her midweek, and feels a bit like a 'date night', a really rather nice feeling. Best of all, the need to come to London for training in the months ahead means that I''ll have a regular excuse to repeat it. Looks like I owe Danny another favour...

Goodbye, big city, hello, county town!

It's been a long time, forty-six years to be precise, since I was born a Londoner. Most of my childhood was spent in North London, the dramas of my first marriage were played out in inner South London, before a shuttle first north, then south, of the river. Virtually all of my politics was done in a city where I had an almost anorakish knowledge of public transport options, and my family, the UK resident part at least, remain snug and warm in North London's suburbia. If you had ever said that I would leave, and of my own volition too, I would have looked at you as if to suggest, "you are mad, aren't you?".

And so it is with some surprise that I can announce that I'm leaving - permanently, I suspect - having sought and won a transfer to the Corporation Tax Operations office in Ipswich, where I start on 1 February. Same job (pretty much), different people, and my view will not be of central London but central Ipswich.

As a result, London will become the big, rather crowded, terribly rushed place where Ros works, a place that I will visit surprisingly frequently, but a place where other people do apparently glamorous things. In truth, I'm not really a doer of glamorous things, although I had the occasional moment when I thought that I might try - exposure to the blowtorch of reality was usually enough to put a stop to such daydreams.

What is unexpected though is the ease with which I have adapted to life beyond the Home Counties. I enjoy the rather slower pace of life, the need to organise social activities, the time to stop and look, rather than have to snatch a quick glance and run. In short, I have been seduced by the relative gentility of country life.

No, I'm not painting a sugar-coated picture of village life, and the notion of a sylvan countryside where bad things never happen is so far removed from the reality that one might wonder why I'm so comfortable. I suppose that I've found my niche in a place where the politics is gentler, where ideology takes something of a backseat to community, in short somewhere where my political style sits better.

So, to my London friends, au revoir. Don't worry, I'll be back from time to time, mainly to see friends and family, and to do things with Ros. There might even be the odd meeting, if I feel the urge. But it's time to build a home and a life, and there's nobody and nowhere else I'd rather do it...