Rhinestone Cowboy

Friends of the Earth are launching the next stage of their Food Chain campaign tomorrow, see the politics.co.uk site for more details, but it's basically about how UK taxpayers are inadvertently funding the destruction of the rainforest by propping up the EU's industrialised farming system. For the launch tomorrow they've invited MPs along for a photo-op which involves one of those bucking broncos. And yes I am going to have a go. And if there's a ridiculous photo, I will post it.

I assume it's going to be in Parliament Square, but that's more or less occupied by Tamil campaigners at the moment, including the hunger striker, so not sure it would be quite right.

Other things I did today

So, the rest of the day including chairing a meeting of the APPG on Credit Unions, with a Treasury Minister as guest speaker. Part of our discussion was about whether credit unions could work more closely with post offices to help them offer more services and ensure their survival. I later discovered that the APPG on Post Offices had been meeting at exactly the same time, with a DWP Minister in attendance, to discuss way in which post offices could expand their range of services.... Typical example of joined-up working!

As for my stint in the Chamber - I actually managed to arrive only 30 seconds before Bill Cash sat down, which is about the right length of time to listen to Bill Cash on Europe, and got to hear an excellent speech from Natascha Engel, about how growing up in West Berlin, till she came to England at the age of nine, shaped her views on 'the European project'. Some of it - the interaction with the Euro-sceptic Tories on the benches opposite - was really funny, but Hansard will probably tidy all that up.

Also made the tail end of a meeting today at which Friends of the Earth were launching their new 'What's Feeding our Food' campaign, which is really good stuff and hopefully I'll be working with them on it in 2009. They want people to put pressure on MPs... you might be pushing at an open door in my case, but feel free to push!

The dangers of reincarnation

I've just bought something on Ebay, and when it comes to paying through PayPal, they have an option where you can a £1 donation to Friends of the Earth. Seems like a good idea to me. Speaking of FoE, they've got an event in Parliament soon, launching a campaign re agriculture/ livestock and climate change. Doesn't seem to be on their website yet. Glad somebody is finally picking up that particular ball and running with it; I've been banging on about it for ages.

Speaking of Norman Baker, which I was in my previous post, I did an interview by email with Uncaged magazine last week and they sent an interview with him as a past example. He said his latest big issue is livestock/ methane, so I guess we can expect a deluge of questions on that soon. I submitted one a few weeks ago, and got an answer that could best be described as 'unsatisfactory', so have tried again, with several more probing variations on the same theme; I'm expecting answers soon, before prorogation.

The last question in the Uncaged interview was what animal I'd like to come back as. Obviously a tiger, they're something of an obsession of mine. Somewhat worried that Norman Baker also wants to come back as one. Our paths might cross!