A FLADBURY climate change campaigner won the support of Evesham’s MP and youngsters at the village’s first school to raise a flag to highlight the battle to save the planet.
David Train was joined by Nigel Huddleston MP at Fladbury CE First School and raised two sea signalling flags, spelling out ‘WE’ in the maritime signal code.
The visit was in response to the ‘climate emergency’ recently declared by MPs in the House of Commons and numerous local councils including neighbouring Stratford District Council.
Mr Train said the unique ceremony was inspired by teenage climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg’s call for children throughout the world to ‘strike’ on Fridays.
“We knew when a flag is pulled down it is called ‘striking’ and we realised we could ‘raise and strike’ the flags on Friday, getting a message to Parliament, without children missing school,” he said.
Youngsters presented a poem on the subject to Mr Huddleston who promised to take it to Westminster to display on his desk in Parliament.
“With Nigel Huddleston now on board, the aim is to inspire all the schools and parliamentarians in Worcestershire on board to inspire the speaker of the Houses of Parliament to raise and strike the flags on Friday over the Palace of Westminster, signalling to all the nations of the Commonwealth and the whole world the need to work together on this great common cause,” Mr Train added.
Mr Huddleston said: “It is great to see people of all ages in the Fladbury community come together to demonstrate their commitment to tackling the important issue. I know the Government is committed to doing all that it can to end our contribution to climate change, including enshrining in law a target to reduce our carbon emissions to net zero by 2050.
“It is clear this issue transcends political affiliation, age, and postcode and we are all determined to do everything we can to curb the effects of climate change.”
Mr Huddleston’s visit to Fladbury Primary School follows his recent meeting with mid-Worcestershire residents in London, where constituents joined thousands of people from across the country to lobby their MPs to take action on climate change.
