Legitimate endless talking?

There are two rather odd pictures on the walls of the Thatcher Room, one of the main meeting rooms in Parliament.

One is a distinctly unflattering picture of Mrs Thatch herself, to which I can only presume she has not given her blessing. In terms of flattery and accuracy, it is a pale imitation of Meryl Streep's eerie take on the Iron Lady, plastered all over this week's papers.

The other is a massive canvas stretched all the way across the front wall of the chamber. It's a bunch of abstract images on top of which float lots of words; I'd say some kids had been asked to sum up what Parliament does, and an artist then dolloped their thoughts onto a twenty-foot-wide screen. Mostly this is fine. The words are nice neutral things like "by / for / of" (as in, I imagine, Lincoln's "Government of the people, by the people, for the people"), "democracy", and "freedom".

But - and this is the odd bit - right across the middle two have been bunged next to each other: "endless" and "talking". And in front of them, as if attempting to make things slightly better, the word "legitimate".

Legitimate endless talking?

Well, there are those who'd heartily agree with that description of MPs. But sometimes talking is really important - and on Tuesday my colleague Dave Timms and I had the chance to do just that, giving evidence to an inquiry (in the Thatcher Room) about fuel poverty and social justice in the low carbon economy.

We said that the Government's Energy Bill has failed to come up with a proper answer to the disgrace of people suffering in poorly heated homes, having to face daily choices about whether to put the radiators on or put food on the table. Fuel poverty has shot up in recent years - up to 4.5 million in 2008, the most recent figures. But the Government's flagship policy on energy efficiency, the Green Deal, is a very long way short of being the kind of comprehensive strategy we need to end fuel poverty and cut carbon emissions from housing in line with what the climate science tells us is needed. We're looking forward to the inquiry's report, out soon.

But from the Government the time for talking has passed: what we need now is action. As their Energy Bill leaves the House of Lords (where it was rebuffed for its lack of detail) and heads to the Commons, a fine place to start would be ensuring the Bill commits to delivering a decent, radical and comprehensive strategy to make our homes fit for the future.