My thoughts on the National Emergency Briefing

 I had known about yesterday’s event at Westminster Hall having received requests from the Zero Hour campaign to contact my MP to attend .My MP is Jon Pearce who recently gave up his role as Chair of Labour Friends of Israel to become a Private Parliamentary Secretary to Keir Starmer )He responded to my request by saying be would if he could. I have no idea whether he did.


All Parliamentarians were invited to attend the event and no list has yet been published of those who did. Zack was on Radio 4 yesterday evening ( Thursday) and made (very)brief reference to being at the event, having been invited as a London Assembly Member. I assume our 4 MPs were there. 

Brothers Simon and Nick Oldridge , described on the events website as 
‘climate funders and communicators, with a background in business’ set up the event, which was supported by a range of organisations, including the National Trust,  the RSPB and the National Education Union.

The purpose of the event was to persuade ‘national leaders’ and prominent figures to prioritise taking / promoting action on Climate Change and Biodiversity, on the basis that the country and planet was facing an emergency.

A succession of academics ( and a senior figure from the military! ) introduced by Mike Berners Lee after an opening speech from Chris Packham, outlined the critical nature of the ‘poly crisis’ and stressed the need for immediate and radical action. Threats to health, national security and food security were highlighted and at the end of 2 hours of  speeches no-one in the audience was prepared to raise their hand to say that the extent of the emergency had been overstated by the panellists and ( according to MIke) as many as half of the audience raised their hand to say that they thought it had been understated.

Perhaps the most powerful and alarming speech was by an A&E consultant who said he was terrified for the future of his 20 year old son, and for the future of humanity. The Doctor’s Association UK backed the event  https://dauk.org/dauk-back-calls-for-national-emergency-climate-briefing/

Attendees were invited to sign a letter to Keir Starmer and the various national broadcasting organisations, calling on him and them to produce a national broadcast and run an information campaign so that the public understands ‘the  profound risks this crisis poses to them and their families’.  


The charge was that neither the government or the ‘ public service broadcasters’ had met their responsibility to inform the public of risks to their safety and well being. It was a charge that was borne out by the total lack of coverage of the event on TV news programmes on Thursday evening. Nothing on Channel 4 and ITV and probably nothing on BBC ( certainly nothing on it’s website). No mention of the issue in the budget either .

Curiously the event was available to watch on the GB News YouTube channel ! 

Watch here from 10 minutes in 

The power of some of the presentations is diminished on the above by the fact that the camera focussed entirely on the platform speakers and didn’t show the overheads that several of the speakers used to illustrate their presentations. Perhaps the channel wanted to re-assure its viewers that there was, after all, really nothing to see 🤷‍♀️

The broadcast ends just after the start of a Q&A at the end of the event. Perhaps GB News decided to pull the plug when an ITV jounalist asked the first question. ( Mike did tell the audience that a film of the event would be made in due course and that it would be shown around the country) 

Equally curiously the only newspaper which appeared to cover the event whilst it was taking place was the Daily Express ! 

Much later in the day The Guardian reported on the event.


I hope the GPEW at all levels promotes the event and its message.

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