Love the local

Bedminster has been named as the region’s only successful bidder in the first round of the Government’s ‘Portas Pilots’ – an initiative to get TV retail guru Mary Portas to help revitalise town centres....‘Bemmie’, as it’s affectionately known in the city, will now get a £100,000 grant and the expertise of Mary Portas and the project team (more here). Might as well have given Bedminster a bag of peanuts because that's all that £100,000 is. The focus on the issue of local shopping areas, and high streets, and the availability of some expertise, is welcome, provided it goes beyond govt public relations - but the amount of money is really tiny. What's really needed is a strategic, genuinely participative approach, backed by appropriate amounts of money which starts to shift the whole economic emphasis towards the local, regional and national economy and de-emphasising the global economy which is the source of so many problems.

Autumn Statement: visionless

George Osbourne's Autumn Statement could have been used as an opportunity to put our economy on the right road. This chance was wasted. It could have been used to set us on the road away from the unequal, unfair, wasteful and polluting rat race we have – it did not. It could have helped create a way of life we can afford in both economic, social and environmental terms – it did not. It could have helped create the jobs that need people, by building on the resources of the people – it did not.

It could have helped to build a more self-reliant and stable economy – instead we are still reliant on a system of international finance which cannot last much longer. It could have started to establish an economy which can be sustained into the future, without killing our environment and exploiting the people – it did not. Instead the Chancellor produced a statement totally lacking is any vision of a better society at all. Actually pretty much par for the course as far as such statements - and budgets - go.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15937446

Doing business with illegally logged timber

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP, is renewing her calls for a ban on illegally logged timber in the UK via a Private Member's Bill, which is on the agenda for its second reading this Friday. The Illegally Logged Timber Bill (Prohibition of Import, Sale or Distribution) would make it illegal in the United Kingdom for a person or company to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase timber or timber products illegally taken, harvested, possessed, transported, sold or exported from their country of origin; and for connected purposes. Why have this and previous governments not already dealt with this matter??

For more details, please visit http://services.parliament.uk/bills/201011/illegallyloggedtimberprohibitionofimportsaleordistribution.html
and http://www.carolinelucas.com/cl/media/caroline-renews-calls-for-uk-ban-on-illegally-logged-timber.html.

BBC News - Carbon emissions 'hidden' in imported goods revealed

The extent of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions "hidden" in imported goods is growing, according to two studies. Official statistics do not include emissions created by making imported goods but researchers say they should. It comes as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports 26% of global emissions come from producing goods for trade. The Carbon Trust found such "embedded" CO2 could negate domestic carbon cuts planned in the UK up to 2025...The Carbon Trust research, posted on its website as draft findings not for circulation, confirms that the UK has increased emissions since 1990 rather than decreasing them, as politicians typically claim.

What may alarm ministers even more is a projection that the radical CO2 cuts planned by government into the 2020s may be offset by ever-increasing levels of CO2 in imports.

BBC News - Carbon emissions 'hidden' in imported goods revealed

Government promotion of arms trading

There is a very strong case for closing the UK Trade and Investment Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI DSO). The UK's active promotion of arms trading through the UKTI DSO should end because arms trading has a devastating impact on millions of people including many living under repressive and violent regimes (see BBC report below*). Such regimes can never be relied on and selling arms to them threatens the security of both the people in those countries and UK interests.

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12967374

Arms export deals: MPs criticise UK's stance - Ministers past and present have been criticised over the UK's export of weapons to regimes in Africa and the Middle East.

The cross-party Committees on Arms Exports Controls accused ministers of "misjudging" the risk that the weapons might be used for internal repression. Countries recently sold UK arms include Libya, Egypt and Bahrain.

But the government, which has revoked arms licences to several countries, said its safeguards were "robust".

As recently as last year, the UK approved arms exports to regimes that have used force to confront popular uprisings.

Ammunition and tear gas were sold to Libya, with sniper rifles, sub-machine guns and CS grenades exported to Bahrain. Parts for armoured vehicles and weapons also went to Egypt.

The cross-party group of MPs noted that since January the government had "been vigorously backpedalling", revoking a total of 160 arms export licences. In February, dozens of licences for the export of arms to Bahrain were revoked after a Foreign Office review amid fears over the suppression of protests there....

(click the link* for more details)

See: http://www.caat.org.uk/

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12967374

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/05-04-2011-arms-exports-report.html

Day of action for Robin Hood Tax: College Green 16 Feb

Oxfam South West to hand over ‘final demand’ to a Bristol bank As banks reveal enormous profits and bonuses, charity joins global day of action to call for Robin Hood Tax.

Oxfam South West will hand over a ‘final demand’ at a Bristol bank on Wednesday (February 16), calling for a tax on the financial sector to help alleviate poverty at home and abroad.

As part of a global day of action, involving organizations such as Comic Relief, Christian Aid, Friends of the Earth and Unite, the charity’s supporters will be at the HSBC bank on College Green, calling for a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions.

The action comes as bonuses for bankers are revealed. A fresh wave of public anger has been ignited by news that banks are predicted to scoop bonuses of £7bn in the UK while at the same time public spending cuts start to bite.

Meanwhile, Britain's biggest banks are poised to reveal more eye-watering profits, with city analysts predicting combined profits of around £24 billion from four banking giants - HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds and Standard Chartered.

A Robin Hood Tax – a 0.05% levy on each financial transaction made by the banks – would raise up to £20bn in the UK alone. About £7 billion could stop cuts to libraries, schools, higher education and other public services, while another £7 billion could pay for free healthcare for 226 million people in poor countries around the world.

Christopher Brown, from Oxfam South West, said the action was needed to remind banks of their responsibilities to use their huge profits for positive action to alleviate poverty at home and abroad – action called for by governments around the world.

“The expected profits made by the UK banking sector are more than enough to save essential public services – which are being cut left, right and centre in the UK – and bring hundreds of thousands of people around the world out of poverty.

“A Robin Hood Tax, which has been supported by the French president and current president of the G20 Nicolas Sarkozy, is a tax whose time has come. The banks got the world into the financial mess it is in – it is time they paid their fair share to rebuild our economy and save services we all need.”

Oxfam South West will join the global call for a Robin Hood Tax on Wednesday, February 16 between 12 and 1pm at the branch of HSBC at College Green. Supporters will hand over their final demand and ask passers-by to sign a petition in support of the campaign.

The media are invited to attend – Oxfam South West volunteers, dressed as Robin Hood, will be available for interview and photographs from 12.30pm.

ENDS

For press information contact:

Christopher Brown at Oxfam South West on 0117 916 6474 or 07887 632 658 or cbrown@oxfam.org.uk

Notes to editors:

For more information about the Robin Hood Tax, visit:

http://robinhoodtax.org/

Similar events will be held in Cardiff, Hereford, Glasgow, Manchester and London, in the UK, as well as in 12 countries around the world, including France, Germany and Canada.

Oxfam works with others to overcome poverty and suffering

House of cards economics

Work on the economy continues at the Treasury, in Ireland, in the EU, at the IMF and in many other places around the globe. There's little stability in a house of cards however.

Letters: Greed not greens cause hunger | Environment | The Guardian

Excellent letter in The Guardian:

Letters: Greed not greens cause hunger Environment The Guardian

The Channel 4 documentary What the Green Movement Got Wrong (Last night's TV, 5 November) in our view made a series of misguided and inaccurate allegations and assumptions. It identified GM as a solution to hunger and implicated anti-GM campaigners for exacerbating food insecurity. As development organisations, we consider the documentary was extremely biased against environmental organisations that do so much to promote positive solutions. Hunger is a blight on humanity, but it is a political and economic problem. Its root causes include the broken and biased trading system; the bankers who gamble on the price of staple foods; and land grabs by financiers – all of which make food unaffordable for the hungry and deny their right to food.

In our view, the most significant impact that GM companies have made is to dominate the seed chain, selling expensive and patented seeds to farmers, seeds that are used more for livestock feed, cotton and biofuels – not for feeding people. The documentary didn't include any independent voices from civil society in the global south who are campaigning against GM and for local sustainable food production.

Had they done so, it is likely to have become clear that the small-scale farmers who provide food for most people in the world are not calling for GM technologies that are beyond their control. They are calling for political will from governments to take on the corporate lobbyists and protect their land, natural resources and production systems; a fair trading system to ensure fair prices; and a fair hearing from governments and documentary-makers on the future food system.

Deborah Doane World Development Movement
Patrick Mulvany UK Food Group
Andrew Scott Practical Action
John Hilary War on Want

Canny Cable's Capitalist Con

Vince Cable was reported as attacking capitalism in his Lib Dem conference speech but in fact he played it pretty cannily - if you view politics on terms like his ie NOT 'what you see is what you get'. He was entertaining, used humour and exaggeration effectively and saw to it that his speech was widely circulated to the media beforehand. He used some colourful language, ‘spivs’, ‘gamblers’, ‘murky world’, ‘markets...rigged’ – which the media zoom in on – and drew just the (‘angry’) reaction he wanted from the business world. All of this created the general impression that Business Secretary Vince wanted and more than got him through what might have been a difficult Lib Dem conference. West Country Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg described it -pretty accurately - as ‘throwing a few lentils’ to his party faithful. I’d describe it as leading everyone on a merry dance (see picture for evidence) - using spin in an attempt to put us in a spin, confusing and causing problems for us with deception/disguise and behaving in a way that hides realities.

Being keen to understand all variations of and views on capitalism – never more so than since capitalist economic systems around the world took many industrial economies to the very brink due to the banking crisis – I closely watched the Cable speech and have followed some of his pronouncements since. Vince Cable stressed the importance of finance, the deficit and its ‘correction’ through cuts and freezing public sector pay. He spoke of how economic growth is essential, how we must remove obstacles to growth and how it should be led private enterprise (he's since stressed the importance of growth eg here). He referred to his agenda as pro-market, pro-business – with competition central - and how high taxes on rich people and companies could send them abroad. The privatisation of Royal Mail was mentioned and he referred to graduates as having to make a bigger contribution to the cost of their higher education (what has since emerged is the creeping privatisation of higher education through the establishment of a free market in tuition fees). Vince has since stressed how he wants to speed up Royal Mail privatisation.

Does this sound like a firmly capitalist approach or an attack on capitalism to you?? Andrew Neil said in his analysis immediately after the speech that he thought it faced in two directions at once. Ex-Chancellor Alistair Darling described Cable’s speech as ‘political hokey cokey’ (great phrase!). In my view the speech liberally (and Liberal Democratically!) sprinkled firm capitalist policies and actions amongst crowd-pleasing rhetoric designed to create the impression of anti-capitalism! There is certainly debate about precisely what capitalism is but few, if any, would dispute that it involves private ownership, private profit, decisions made by a market and economic growth as the primary aim – all which are extended by Vince Cable’s policies and actions along with those of the Coalition Government he is fully signed up to. So, its Vince Capitalist then.

[I'll follow up on this post with a further analysis of capitalism later]

Water footprints and the Living Planet Report 2010

WWF's Living Planet Report 2010 has some vitally important things to say about our planet not least our use and abuse of water...Lets not foregt the huge amounts of water embedded in the vast quantity of material and goods exported all over the globe - including from countries whose people struggle to get enough water for basics.

http://www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/about_us/living_planet_report_2010/

http://blogactionday.change.org/

Green tips on the theme of clothes

Copy of a short article to be published in the local newsletter/magazine
'Knowledge', part of the regular 'Green Scene' series I write. This one's on the theme of clothes - topical give my recent blog entry on rising food and clothes prices the other day.

Money-saving, no cost or low cost ideas for being green:

*buy second-hand and where affordable buy clothes made from natural and ecological or recycled materials

*put old clothes to new uses and turn into draft excluders, cleaning rags, a patchwork quilt/blanket, furniture stuffing...

*take old clothes to charity shops and good quality recycling schemes like Oxfam, Scope

*think through what you are buying: Do you really need it? Will the item last well?

*don’t wash clothes at 50 degrees, cut the temperature down to 40 or 30 degrees – some detergents are designed to clean well at even 15 degrees

*think about whether what you are buying has been made by oppressed, abused, extreme low paid, slave and/or child labour – ask shops questions and if they don’t satisfy you then buy elsewhere

Food and clothes prices: much more than narrow economics

For me there has never been any such thing as cheap food and clothes because someone or something, somewhere is paying the costs or suffering the consequences of 'low' prices such as in our supermarkets...joined up, systems, thinking shows this. However, even those who have formerly had other perspectives are increasingly saying that the era of 'cheap' food and clothes is over (see the link to the Daily Express article and Primark comments below).

Fascinating interview on Radio 4 today about this (see link below). World demand for meat is up and so is demand for wheat and other grains to feed the animals, land that could or did grow food is being taken for energy crops or other purposes, human population is rising, climate change is cutting yields in key locations - factors like these are increasing demand whilst also lowering supply and that means the dominant overall trend in food prices over time is definitely upwards. Adopting greener lifestyles would over time moderate the upward prices trend.

BBC News - Today - 'Upward long-term food cost trend'

The rising cotton and food prices are driving fears that our weekly shopping could soon become more expensive.

Natalie Berg from the research group Planet Retail examines whether consumers would have to bear the brunt or whether companies would be able to absorb any price rise.

See also:

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/199383

Charles: Cabot [Carbon] Circus

Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall visited Cabot Circus shopping centre the other day to launch an 'environmental/sustainability' initiative. The claims that were made in local newspaper and tv reports about the 'green' credentials of Cabot Circus simply dont stand up to even the most basic scrutiny. The claims show just how weak and loose mainstream 'environmental/sustainability/green' thinking, standards and practices currently are...

THE Cabot Circus shopping centre had its first royal visitors yesterday, but the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were not in the city for a bit of retail therapy – they were here to paint the town green.

...James Bailey, Cabot Circus centre manager stated,

"As a centre, we have a strong track record of sustainability, having been recognised as the UK's first retail project of its kind to achieve the highest rating of 'excellent' by the Building Research Establishment.

"Environmental considerations have always been integral to Cabot Circus – from the overall design philosophy and integration with the existing city centre, to waste minimisation and use of energy and water efficiency features."

The distinctive energy-efficient domed roofing of Cabot Circus even seemed to get the thumbs-up from the Prince, who is known to often have unequivocal opinions on modern architecture...

If Cabot Circus is about 'green' Bristol and the West where does it prominently feature local and regional products? If it's consistent with Bristol’s green city/capital ambition why the focus on driving to the huge car park (pictured top left) and shops that import products from all over the world? Where are the genuinely green products and businesses? Why are plastic bags given out left right and centre?? Why no mention of how it has increased Bristol's already very large and unsustainable carbon footprint, both directly and indirectly? Cabot Circus is all about the celebration and advocacy of mass consumerism, the belief that the more we consume the better off we are, something that is remarkable in these pretty unprecedented times of credit crunch, economic downturn, resource depletion and environmental degradation.

The focus of Cabot Circus is much more global economy than local economy, much more about a small number of people getting rich than local people meeting their needs. Debt-funded mass consumption around the globe is causing extremely serious and urgent economic and environmental problems. So what have we done in Bristol? Build a massive shopping centre, including one of Europes biggest car parks!! Mass consumerist societies eat up resources (sparking oil price rises) like there is no tomorrow and spew out vast amounts of climate change causing carbon and very large amounts of all kinds of wastes

Would it not have been much more valuable to individuals, neighbourhoods and communities in Bristol to get together a proper strategy to maintain and develop shops, services and jobs in each locality? We need development to be localised. Cabot Circus is a million miles from local production for local needs yet this is the pattern of development we need for a happier, healthier, fairer, greener and more convivial city!

UK politicians hide our total carbon emissions

In debates whilst standing in the local and general elections - and in debates for yrs before then - councillors and MPs have always told me that UK carbon emissions were falling (Kerry McCarthy even sent me a graph in the post). As someone who has worked and campaigned in this area for yrs I've known that this is not the case and have thus argued the toss with people from all the big parties. You can see why the story below might catch my eye then...

BBC News - Openness urged on UK's emissions

The UK government's chief environment scientist has called for more openness in admitting Britain's apparent cuts in greenhouse gases are an illusion.

Robert Watson says that if emissions "embedded" in imported goods are counted, UK emissions are up, not down.

He says the same syndrome is true for other rich nations which offshored manufacturing industry.

That means developing countries - particularly China - are blamed for goods they buy for export to the West.

“We don't have jurisdiction over emissions embedded in imports, they're difficult to calculate accurately”

He said: "At face value UK emissions look like they have decreased 15% or 16% since 1990. But if you take in carbon embedded in our imports, our emissions have gone up about 12%. We've got to be more open about this."...

Click on the BBC link to read more.

Corporate Social Irresponsibility

How do you spell Corporate Social Irresponsibility:

T R A F I G U R A

A Dutch court has found multinational Trafigura guilty of illegally exporting toxic waste from Amsterdam and concealing the nature of the cargo.

In 2006, Trafigura transported waste alleged to have been involved in the injury of thousands of people in Ivory Coast. Trafigura denied any wrongdoing.

It expressed disappointment in the ruling and is considering an appeal. The firm was fined 1m euros (£836,894) for its ship, the Probo Koala, transiting Amsterdam with its cargo.

The ship then went on to unload its cargo in Ivory Coast.

"It is a good thing that they have been found guilty but it would be even better if they were sent to jail” Guy Oulla Alleged waste victim

Trafigura employee Naeem Ahmed, who was involved in the ship's operation in Amsterdam, was fined 25,000 euros and the captain of the Probo Koala, 46-year-old Sergiy Chertov, was sentenced to a five-year suspended jail term.

This is the first time Trafigura has faced criminal charges since the toxic waste scandal unfolded in Ivory Coast's commercial capital, Abidjan, in 2006.

Trafigura, an oil trading company, initially tried to clean up low-grade oil by tipping caustic soda into the hold of the Probo Koala. The company tried to unload the waste in Amsterdam for treatment, declaring it as "harmless slops".

When the treatment company came back with a higher price for cleaning the waste, the cargo was shipped to Africa where it ended up in Abidjan to be handled at a much lower rate....

The full BBC report here.

Biodiversity: threats to

There's only so much of our planet to go around and so as the human population has accelerated in growth and as human consumption has increased - and intensified per person especially in the rich world - so biodiversity has declined. Its estimated that there are 1.4 to 1.7 million living species that we have named and described and that there may be as many as 10 or even 100 million species in total - and we are responsible for hundreds of extinctions, more likely thousands if you count in species we did not even know existed.
*
We hunt species directly - for food or medicine or sport - cutting numbers and sometimes wiping out, as with the dodo, or nearly wiping out species, as with the blue whale. We take large areas of land, wiping out habitats and ecosystems eg by deforestation, wetland drainage...to create farmland, mine resources, build roads, airports, towns and cities...We dig and drill into the ground and under the sea to extract resources, like coal, oil and gas, that have taken millions of years to form. We consume the resources we've extracted and pour waste and pollution into the air, oceans and onto land.
*
We grow our economies as fast as we can - that's how we measure our progress, by the increase in gross domestic product (GDP). GDP treats loss of biodiversity and loss of ecosystems and the services provided as a benefit not a cost eg the current oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico or the Exxon Valdez disaster or all the other oil spills are counted not as a cost but as a benefit - yet we are in truth impoverished by it.
*
I've previously posted on the gross deficiencies of GDP as an indicator here and on the need for a new kind of economics here. See here for the wiki entry on why GDP is very bad as an indicator of general welfare and wellbeing.

Peter Tatchell in Bristol

I'll be introducing Peter Tatchell at a discussion event next Thurs, 22nd April, 8pm, The Thunderbolt pub, 124 Bath Rd, BS4 3ED. £3 on the door.

'Big business isn't working - why the future is Green' is the topic the prominent rights activist, campaigner and Green Party member will be speaking on. Click on image to enlarge.

For me Peter is an inspirational character who has shown great courage and persistence on both a personal and on a political level...whether its his attempt at a citizens arrest on Robert Mugabe, advocacy that we protest about the Pope's forthcoming visit to the UK, or his very persuasive argument for gay marriage via a civil ceremony as a benchmark for equal treatment under the law, and more...details via: http://www.petertatchell.net/

Supporting fairtrade

'If you are elected as an MP on May the 6th, would you, in principle, support the continued growth of Fairtrade in the UK?' *YES - and in practice too (see here)!!

I feel very strongly about this - and I'm sure you are not surprised to hear that it is natural Green territory to work for 'better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world...requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price),...address[ing] the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers...enabl[ing] them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.' See http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/

____________________________________________________

Dear Mr Vowles,

I am aware you must be very busy these days, but as we approach the general election I would like to ask for two minutes of your time to answer one simple question:

If you are elected as an MP on May the 6th, would you, in principle, support the continued growth of Fairtrade in the UK?

A simple yes or no answer would be very useful. [*see above!]

Of course we would also welcome any additional thoughts or comments you'd like to provide regarding Fairtrade!

Please respond to the following e-mail adress:
election2010@fairtrade.org.uk

Many thanks,
Toby Quantrill
Head of Public Policy,
Fairtrade Foundation

Budget? What budget?

Copy of a letter written by me, first published in the Bristol Observer in April 1990, about the budget of the day (pictured, click for larger version). Almost every word of it applies directly to today's budget - that's how much the economics of sustainability has advanced at the top of Government despite the glut of evidence that we desperately need it for our health, our jobs and our future! The only glimmer of promise was the setting up of a green investment bank but even that had too little money backing it. Basically this budget was hardly a budget at all, more a straight political speech, eyes firmly on the general election.
________________________________________________________

The budget could have been used as an opportunity to put our economy on the right road. This chance was wasted. It could have been used to set us on the road away from the rat race of non-selective economic growth, which is wasteful and polluting – it did not.

It could have helped create a way of life we can afford in both economic, social and environmental terms – it did not. It could have helped create the jobs that need people, by building on the resources of the people – it did not.

It could have helped to build a more self-reliant and stable economy – instead we are still reliant on a system of international finance which cannot last much longer. It could have started to establish an economy which can be sustained into the future, without killing our environment and exploiting the people – it did not.

...Instead there are signs the Chancellor had the…next general election in mind. He wanted to set the scene for favourable short term conditions to get elected next time – and he has probably failed even to do that. What a lack of courage and vision he showed.

Animal welfare

Had an email announcing the launch of the International Fund for Animal Welfare election manifesto today (copy below). I was asked to consider posting my views so I sent this statement...As a Green I stand for improving animal welfare, whether wild or domestic animals, at home and abroad. I’m for a significant reduction in animal exploitation for commercial purposes, for habitat protection and help for all animals suffering distress.

I’ve always been a very strong supporter of all IFAWs work eg on phasing out commercial whaling, on reducing ocean noise pollution, on enforcing the EU ban of commercial trade in seal products, on protecting UK seals more effectively, on supporting elephant and tiger conservation, on combating the internet wildlife trade and on effective enforcement of the law banning fox hunting.

I’d also stress that Greens want: all animal experiments replaced with more reliable non-animal alternatives; an end to factory farming, and an end to the promotion of factory farming abroad; the encouragement of low meat consumption. We would: ban live animal exports; end the genetic treatment of animals; ban bloodsports; end badger culling; and ban the use of animals in circuses

_______________________________________________

Dear...

In your role as a candidate at the next election, I wanted to make you aware of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) election manifesto launched today.

The manifesto sets out IFAW's vision of the responsibilities and challenges that face the next UK Government on key animal welfare issues. The manifesto looks at areas such as whaling, commercial seal hunting, trade in endangered species and hunting with dogs, and makes recommendations in these policy areas.

You can read the foreword and summary of recommendations here.

Or you can view the whole manifesto on IFAW in Action’s election website or by clicking the report image on the right.

A hard copy will also be sent to you in the post in the next few days.

In the coming weeks, we will be asking our supporters to contact you and other candidates in their constituency to seek candidates’ views on animal welfare and conservation issues.

We will also post candidates’ responses on our website. We would be very grateful if you would consider posting your views (and specifically on areas such as whaling, commercial seal hunting, trade in endangered species and hunting with dogs). You can do so on the form at the link below:
http://e-activist.com/ea-campaign/clientcampaign.do?ea.client.id=15&ea.campaign.id=6016

I am sure you appreciate the depth and strength of public feeling in these areas. I hope, therefore, you will take the time to view our recommendations and post your views on our site.

Yours sincerely,
Robbie Marsland
Director, IFAW in Action