Green Sammy's Debut 2
Sammy Wilson is launching the new Environment Agency at Carrickfergus tomorrow, but there might be a few spare tickets for the event. David Ford is refusing to go, describing the event as "a total sham" and "the political equivalent of the emperor's new clothes". This is because Sammy's predecessor, Arlene Foster, rejected the creation of an independent Environmental Protection Agency. Instead the "new" body will be a revamped version of the current in house Environment and Heritage Service.
Not to be outdone, the Environment Committee chair Patsy McGlone has also declared that it would be "an absolute waste" of his time to attend. "Just as Marathon became Snickers" Patsy argues "the new Environment Agency replacing Environment and Heritage Service has all the same packaging and content - the only thing to change is the name."
Whilst dwelling on green matters, I'd like to revisit my entry Green Sammy's Debut 1. A few days after publishing it a reader pointed out that our Minister's signature wasn't on Early Day Motion 893 dealing with "Rainforests and Climate Change." I thought I must be going crazy as I was sure I had spotted it. After checking with the parliamentary authorities, though, I gather that Sammy did sign the EDM. Clicking on the button which allows you to switch from "Open Signatures" to "All Signatures" reveals his name, and the Commons tell me this means he withdrew his signature (apparently on 26th June, 3 days after I published the blog).
I am still waiting to hear from the Environment Department the reason why, but in the meantime you can examine the At the time of writing, Sammy Wilson's signature is still on which "agrees with the Government's Chief Scientific Adviser that climate change is a threat to civilisation".
I'm 
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