{"id":2075,"date":"2017-12-18T10:39:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T10:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=2075"},"modified":"2017-12-18T10:39:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T10:39:00","slug":"column-speaking-up-for-the-silent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/?p=2075","title":{"rendered":"Column: Speaking Up for the Silent"},"content":{"rendered":"

In positions of responsibility, it is important that those with a platform use it well.\u00a0 As the Sevenoaks MP, I speak up for thousands of people in Parliament; I knock heads together when people can\u2019t cut through bureaucratic systems; and I stand up for causes I believe in.\u00a0 I do this because I can, whilst most people cannot.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not alone – most MPs worth their salt do this.\u00a0 But speaking up for those without a voice goes beyond representing only people.\u00a0 In many ways, I represent our environment, too: from streets to boundaries – even the air we breathe.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_7468\"<\/a>Recently, I have received hundreds of letters asking me to \u2018stand up for the Green Belt\u2019, for example.\u00a0 My position on the matter should be clear, not only because I committed to doing just that at recent General Election \u2013 but also because I\u2019m a conservative.<\/p>\n

The clue is in the name: conservative.\u00a0 I generally want to conserve things.<\/p>\n

Where I think things work well, I think they should be conserved.\u00a0 Where I think things should be learned from, I think they should be preserved.<\/p>\n

But conservatism extends to protecting all things that are vulnerable.\u00a0 This can include areas of land, and the wildlife they contain, as well as buildings, and the traditions they maintain.<\/p>\n

Vellum \u2013 on which Acts of Parliament are printed \u2013 is a vital part of our national heritage and something I successfully campaigned to protect last year.\u00a0\"MF<\/a><\/p>\n

Heritage sites \u2013 remains from the Reformation or historic pubs \u2013 are windows into our local history and a key part of the district\u2019s attractiveness to tourists.<\/p>\n

And our Green Belt \u2013 about which I recently wrote to the Communities Secretary, urging him to maintain protections \u2013 is the jewel to which the rest of the country look.\u00a0 Having successfully convinced the Chancellor to ring-fence Green Belt land, our beautiful area is safe for now.<\/p>\n

But our work to maintain and enhance protections for the environment is not yet done, because the environment always needs looking after to meet our golden standards.<\/p>\n

Over the last few months, the Government has raised those standards even further.<\/p>\n

Now, we\u2019re tackling the plastics that are damaging our marine environment, cracking down on the ivory trade and increasing jail time for animal abusers.<\/p>\n

We have a duty to be the first generation to leave the environment in a better shape than when we inherited it.\u00a0 And I will continue to help the Government work towards ensuring that this is the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In positions of responsibility, it is important that those with a platform use it well.\u00a0 As the Sevenoaks MP, I speak up for thousands of people in Parliament; I knock heads together when people can\u2019t cut through bureaucratic systems; and I stand up for causes I believe in.\u00a0 I do this because I can, whilst … Continue reading “Column: Speaking Up for the Silent”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[714,715,586,487,454],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2075"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2076,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075\/revisions\/2076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.michaelfallon.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}