STEVE DOUBLE - MP for St Austell & Newquay

STEVE DOUBLE MP FEBRUARY 2018

Next week on 6th February, in my capacity of Chairman of the Protect our Waves All Party Parliamentary Group, working with Sky TV, I am hosting an event calling on MPs to pledge to cut the amount of plastic used in Parliament with the aim of making the UK the first plastic free Parliament.

In the Cornish constituency of St Austell and Newquay which I am proud to represent, we have many miles of stunning coastline, beautiful beaches and amazing seascapes. People come from all over the world to enjoy our wonderful natural environment. Interspersed with all of this is all too obvious marine menace – the plastic foe that has invaded our waters.

Since my election in 2015 I have chaired the Protect Our Waves APPG and along with the renowned campaigners at Cornish charity Surfers Against Sewage have worked hard to highlight the problems we are storing up for ours and future generations with our reckless use of single use plastics.

In 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic; in 2016, a global population of more than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tons of plastic. This is set to double by 2034. Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans and there may now be around 5.25 trillion macro and microplastic pieces floating in the open ocean, altogether weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.

UK-wise, approximately 5000 items of marine plastic pollution have been found per mile of beach and on average over 150 plastic bottles can be found on each mile of UK beaches.

On top of this, recent studies have revealed marine plastic pollution in 100% of marine turtles, 59% of whales, 36% of seals and 40% of seabird species examined. 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually.

MAIL ONLINE - 4 FEBRUARY 2018

A male Tory MP said Theresa May should not be kept in No10 just because she is a woman as the Prime Minister - saying it would be 'feminism gone bonkers'. 

Steve Double said it will do the Conservatives and the cause of women 'no favours' if the PM is kept in Downing Street out of fear of sparking a sexism row by ousting her. 

He was hitting back at fellow Tory Nadine Dorries who warned the party will be pilloried if male MPs remove their female leader as happened to Margaret Thatcher.

The leaked WhastApp exchange between the two MPs comes amid fresh reports that Mrs May could face a leadership challenge.

Brexiteers are said to be plotting a coup to replace her with a 'dream team' of Boris Johnson, Michael Gove and Jacob Rees-Mogg if she goes soft on Brexit.

In an exchange, published in the Mail On Sunday, Mr Double, MP for St Austell and Newquay in Cornwall, warned against letting the PM's gender dictate party policy.

He wrote: ‘If the only reason we shouldn’t oust the PM is because she is a woman, but if it was a man it would be OK – that’s feminism gone bonkers.

‘There are lots of good reasons not to undermine the PM – the fact she is a woman is irrelevant.’ 

Ms Dorries, Mid Bedfordshire MP, hit back writing: ‘It isn’t when we have 21 per cent of female MPs to Labour’s 45. I am pointing out just a smidgin of the s*** that will be heaped upon is if TM is ousted by male MPs.

‘You could be taking down the party. Women are in no mood to let an act like this go unpunished.’ 

But Mr Double stuck to his guns, replying: ‘If word gets out that the only reason she’s kept in is because she’s a woman it will do us no favours – or the cause of women.’ 

However Ms Dorries fired back: ‘We can’t ignore what happened to Margaret Thatcher.

'Removing our first female PM could be seen as inevitable. Removing two will be viewed as something else entirely.’ 

She added that male Tory MPs toppling their first female leader in 1990 may have been ‘inevitable’, but ‘removing two will be viewed as something else entirely’.

Women voters would take revenge, she claimed.

But St Austell and Newquay Tory MP Steve Double claimed it was ‘bonkers’ to argue ‘the only reason we shouldn’t oust the PM is because she’s a woman’.  By Kate Ferguson 

STEVE DOUBLE - Is the Conservative MP for St Austell and Newquay, claims the coastlines of his constituency were all under threat by the marine menace of waste plastic. He is quoted as saying: “MPs ... have our own role to play in raising awareness and setting an example on this important matter.”

In 1950, the world’s population of 2.5 billion produced 1.5 million tons of plastic; in 2016, a global population of more than 7 billion people produced over 320 million tons of plastic. This is set to double by 2034. Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution find their way into our oceans and there may now be around 5.25 trillion macro and microplastic pieces floating in the open ocean, altogether weighing up to 269,000 tonnes.

UK-wise, approximately 5000 items of marine plastic pollution have been found per mile of beach and on average over 150 plastic bottles can be found on each mile of UK beaches.

On top of this, recent studies have revealed marine plastic pollution in 100% of marine turtles, 59% of whales, 36% of seals and 40% of seabird species examined. 100,000 marine mammals and turtles and 1 million sea birds are killed by marine plastic pollution annually. 

CORNWALL TODAY, SEPTEMBER 2017 - A plastic deposit scheme championed by Cornwall environmental charity Surfers Against Sewage is one step closer to becoming a reality in England after the campaign received the support of more than 270,000 people.

To put pressure on the UK government to implement a scheme which would reduce the amount of plastic bottles that end up in our oceans, Surfers Against Sewage campaigners, 38 Degrees, the Marine Conservation Society and cross-party MPs have submitted the petition to 10 Downing Street.

The 270,000-signature Message in a Bottle petition is the largest petition in the UK calling for a deposit return system. Hugo Tagholm, SAS chief executive officer, said the fight to see an end to marine plastic pollution must go on.

He said: "The idea of the campaign is to trap plastic bottles in the economy not in the ocean."

Taking the petition to Whitehall, St Agnes-based SAS also took its 30-ft Wasteland warship made up of plastic litter recovered from UK beaches to reinforce the point. Wasteland is SAS's latest campaign calling on the public to resist single-use plastics such as throw-away water bottles as new findings show a growing lack of knowledge about the issue of the damage plastic waste can cause.

The St Agnes-based environmental charity which works towards protecting the UK's oceans and beaches looked at the plastic consumption habits of more than 2,000 people across the UK and showed that, remarkably, one in four (24%) remain unaware that not all plastics are recyclable. The shocking findings come as the average person throwing away 23kg of single-use plastic every year, equivalent to the weight of 1,212 500ml plastic Coca Cola bottles, 4,600 plastic forks or a seven-year-old child.

The charity said it aimed to reduce marine plastic pollution by 50% by 2022 by both capturing plastic which has escaped into the marine environment and preventing it escaping in the first place. Mr Tagholm said: "Society’s plastic addiction has reached crisis point and we need to fast-track proven and effective systems including deposit returns to protect our oceans and beaches from the scourge of plastic pollution.

"Surfers Against Sewage is proud to deliver the voice of over quarter of a million supporters to urge the government to follow Scotland’s lead and commit to introducing a comprehensive bottle deposit return system."

CONSERVATIVE MPS 2017-2018

THE GUARDIAN THURSDAY 11 JANUARY 2018 - Theresa May has said her government is serious about improving the environment after pressure groups gave a lukewarm response to a 25-year green plan, praising its ambition but warning that it lacked sufficient proposals for immediate action. May’s proposals were also criticised by Jeremy Corbyn, who said her pledge to stop all avoidable plastic waste by 2042 was “far too long” to take action.

UK POLITICS

The United Kingdom has many political parties, some of which are represented in the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Below are links to the websites of the political parties that were represented in the House of Commons after the 2015 General Election:

CONSERVATIVE PARTY

CO-OPERATIVE PARTY

DEMOCRAT UNIONIST PARTY

GREEN PARTY

LABOUR PARTY

LIBERAL DEMOCRATS

PLAID CYMRU

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY

SINN FEIN

SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC AND LABOUR PARTY

UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY

ULSTER UNIONIST PARTY

STEVE'S LINKS

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/surfers-against-sewage-plastic-petition-482821

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5350201/Double-not-stay-just-woman.html