Mabinogogiblog: Greens must uphold the principle of non-violence.

Good post reminding us of a key green principle.

Mabinogogiblog: Greens must uphold the principle of non-violence.

Here's an extract from one of my previous posts about when, why and how breaking the law (non-violently) might be justified...

Few people, if any, would argue that law breaking is never justifiable - think of prominent examples of law breaking to achieve positive social change like Vaclav Havel and the 'Velvet Revolution' in 1989, perhaps inspired by people like Mahatma Gandhi to gain independence in India and Martin Luther King Jr campaigning for civil rights in the USA.

I do belong to a radical party that has this core value: 'Electoral politics is only one way to achieve change in society, and we will use a variety of methods to help effect change, providing those methods do not conflict with our other core principles.'http://policy.greenparty.org.uk/values.html

It is justifiable to break the law when campaigning and in fact some may feel compelled or duty-bound to do so, often inspired by people like Gandhi (who in turn was influenced by Henry David Thoreau) . However, if the law is broken it must, in my view, generally: appeal directly to the sense of justice of the majority; not reject the rule of law; be non-violent; accept lawful punishment that results; be a shrewd tactical move (why do it otherwise?); be consistent with core green values.

CAMPAIGNERS fighting Bristol City Council's plans to sell off green spaces are calling on people to join a protest meeting next week.

CAMPAIGNERS fighting Bristol City Council's plans to sell off green spaces are calling on people to join a protest meeting next week.

The council has faced ongoing criticism for the area green spaces plan, which proposes selling off 62 sites across the city to fund improvements in other parks. Public consultation officially came to an end at the end of October, but residents are still hoping to get their message across. The protest is planned for 1pm on Tuesday, ahead of the full council meeting at the Council House on College Green at 2pm...Depending on the outcome of the motion to scrap the plan, a second protest is pencilled in for December 16, when a decision on which sites will be sold off is due to be made by the council cabinet.

Research: biofuels significantly worsen climate change

Britain's promise to more than double its use of biofuels by 2020 is "significantly" adding to worldwide carbon emissions, the Government admitted yesterday. Britain is signed up to a European guarantee to source 10 per cent of its transport fuel from renewable sources, such as biofuels, within the next 10 years.

But ministers have said that the policy is proving counter-productive and the greenhouse emissions associated with biofuels are substantially greater than the savings. They are now urging the European Commission to rethink the plan. The admission coincides with a major study published this week which concludes that biofuels will create an extra 56 million tons of CO2 per year – the equivalent of 12 to 26 million cars on Europe's roads by 2020.

This is because Europe will need to cultivate an area somewhere between the size of Belgium and the Republic of Ireland with biofuels to meet the target, which can only be done through land conversion – and more controversially, deforestation. The work will be on such a scale that the carbon released from the vegetation, trees and soil will be far greater than those given off by fossil fuels they are designed to replace.

The study, from the Institute for European Environmental Policy, found that far from being 35 to 50 per cent less polluting, as required by the European Directive, the extra biofuels will be twice as bad for the environment...

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/biofuel-plan-will-cause-rise-in-carbon-emissions-2129773.html

Monbiot.com » The Lax Tax Pact

Trying saying this quickly! Another great piece from George Monbiot.

Monbiot.com » The Lax Tax Pact

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

BRISTOL City Council has admitted it may have to make up to £70 mil- lion of spending cuts over the next four years – £20m higher than previously announced.

I'm worried about the implications of this for vital services eg care for the elderly. Aren't we supposed to be remembering the contributions people made in the world wars? Many of these people are now in care homes or in need of care support to remain in their homes - we should be looking after them well.

BRISTOL City Council has admitted it may have to make up to £70 mil- lion of spending cuts over the next four years – £20m higher than previously announced.

Effective Labour Shadow Cabinet?

I think its becoming pretty clear that Ed Miliband and his shadow cabinet are not performing well and not making an impact as an effective opposition (click image to enlarge). Why for instance did they not strongly make the point that the recent much bigger than expected economic growth figures are a result of Labour's policies and action whilst Alistair Darling was Chancellor? I'm not an economist but I know a bit about politics, decision making and complex systems, which includes economies. Its crystal clear that this coalition government cant possibly be responsible for the last set of growth figures because they've simply not been in power anything like long enough to have any effect.

There is a time lag between government economic policy/action and effects appearing so we'll only begin to see the impacts of the coalition government on growth as more months and years go by. We are however seeing the effects of the previous Labour government now. Labour's weak shadow treasury team failed to strongly point this out, made only lame comments and tended to talk down the economy. Ed Miliband and the shadow cabinet failed to go with what is both the truth and the best political strategy/tactic and take the credit for the growth figures - so maybe former Labour cabinet member Jack Straw was right when he said that a third of the new shadow cabinet is incapable - maybe its more than a third!

Will Cameron live up to this statement??

David Cameron Strategy Challenge (Jonathon Porritt)

“Our action to cut the deficit might be making the headlines today. But if we get it right, our action to cut carbon emissions and move to a more sustainable, low-carbon economy could become one of the defining stories of the new politics of the Coalition. This Government will back strong rhetoric with decisive action”.(David Cameron)

Great quote. And good to see a contrast made between the kind of leadership required to deal with the deficit and the kind of leadership required to address climate change.
Six months on from the General Election in May, not a single citizen in the UK will have any residual doubt about the deficit priority. But apart from the usual suspects that make up the Green Movement today, that quality of leadership on the environment and climate change has been largely invisible to everyone else.

Sometime soon, the Prime Minister is therefore going to have to get his vision of “the greenest government ever” out and about. However beautifully crafted by his speech writers, one or two ‘keynote green speeches’ just won’t cut it. Warm words sort of help people feel better about things, but, in reality, they are next to useless when it comes to making things happen.

Happily, David Cameron has a perfect opportunity to hand to get this sorted before the first anniversary of the General Election next year – via the simple process of developing a brand new Sustainable Development Strategy for the UK.

The current (but time-expired) strategy played a hugely important role in getting Sustainable Development out of the clutches of DEFRA and properly embedded across the whole of government – and indeed across the whole of the UK. It helped make a lot of things happen, and the Sustainable Development Commission was able to use it to make considerable progress in a host of areas. It was widely admired by other countries struggling to make sense of their own sustainable development challenges.

So all the Prime Minister has to do is to take the same approach as he did with CO2 emissions through the organisation 10:10 – committing to a 10% reduction in emissions from the central government estate by May next year, and then instructing his Cabinet Ministers (and Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell) that there was to be no further discussion about this – something that Tony Blair (let alone Gordon Brown) never did in quite such robust terms.

So all he has to do is to instruct Caroline Spelman to get on and do what she already should have done in committing to a new Sustainable Development Strategy, given that the existing five year strategy came to an end in July. Instruct Chris Huhne, Vince Cable, Michael Gove, Philip Hammond and Andrew Lansley to help get it sorted out as expeditiously and as positively as possible. And instruct George Osborne not to let the Treasury bugger it up.

With that kind of prime ministerial push behind them, “delivering a new Sustainable Development Strategy” seems a suitably modest additional test for Spelman and Huhne. After all, these were the two that were stupid enough to make a knee-jerk decision to get rid of the Sustainable Development Commission, before they had any clue at all about what they were really doing, and have rather pathetically been trying to put things right since then. Nowhere is that more apparent than in the evidence that the Sustainable Development Commission has just presented to the Environmental Audit Committe’s Inquiry into what should happen to SD in Government, once the SDC disappears next April.

Far more eloquently and reasonably than I could possibly manage (still being more than a bit pissed off about what happened earlier in the year), it lays out exactly what it is that the SDC does, exactly how it gets it done, and exactly what the outcomes have been. No false claims, no whingeing – just a comprehensive, very professional account of what happens today and what the Government will now need to get done by other means.

So do have a look at it: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/publications.php?id=1112

No world cup football here??

Yet another reason not to build a new Bristol City football stadium in the green belt - looks like the chances of England hosting the 2018 World Cup have nosedived...

BBC Sport - Football - Fifa row has "harmed" England 2018 World Cup bid

Ruscombe Green: University decision a disgrace

Well said Green Cllr Phillip Booth, this is my view exactly. Private up, public down.

Ruscombe Green: University decision a disgrace

...University education it seems must now be viewed solely as a personal asset, and those lucky enough to get it should foot the bill. This is a radical departure from how we once conceived the public realm. When I was lucky enough to go to University higher education was seen as a social good, enriching our whole society rather than merely an individual's future salary. Universities passed onto the next generation knowledge and added to it. As one commentator said: "They were about learning rather than earning."

Higher education should be a shared public good not just a prize for individuals. Already we have seen under Labour more wealthy children going to the more prestigous universities - the Coalition will now be entrenching still further the inequalities.

Are you sure religious faith is a good idea?

Just a few topical examples to back my point:

Rev Wallace Benn: Campaign for women bishops 'just like Nazis in 1939' Mail Online

A Church of England bishop caused outrage last night by linking those who support the ordination of women bishops to the Nazis.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1325966/Sakineh-Mohammadi-Ashtiani-Death-stoning-Iranian-woman-hang-today.html
An Iranian woman who faced being stoned to death will hang today, a human rights group has claimed.
The International Committee Against Stoning said that the authorities had given the go-ahead for the execution of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani.
Her fate has provoked international outcry after she was sentenced to death by stoning for committing adultery...

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]

How experts found that the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco are seriously harmful

BBC - Mark Easton's UK: Drugs debate hots up

...the ISCD [Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs] has returned to the fray with what is called multicriteria decision analysis.

This approach includes 16 criteria including a drug's affects on users' physical and mental health, social harms including crime, "family adversities" and environmental damage, economic costs and "international damage".

The scientists, based on their expert knowledge, score a substance on each category from zero to 100...

The problem remains, however, of how much weight to give each of these categories.

"The weighting process is necessarily based on judgement, so it is best done by a group of experts working to consensus," the report authors say.

"Extensive sensitivity analyses on the weights showed that this model is very stable; large changes, or combinations of modest changes, are needed to drive substantial shifts in the overall rankings of the drugs."
What emerges is a ranking of drugs at complete odds with the official Home Office classification system.

The fact that alcohol emerges as the most harmful drug leads the authors to conclude that "aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary public health strategy" but its place at the head of the table also suggests a legal status in stark contrast to the much less harmful effect of Class A drugs including ecstasy and LSD.

It is also notable that cocaine and tobacco emerge with very similar rankings in terms of harm...

More here:
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(10)61462-6/fulltext

We've been conned. The deal to save the natural world never happened | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

We've been conned. The deal to save the natural world never happened | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian

It suits governments to let us trash the planet. It's not just that big business gains more than it loses from converting natural wealth into money. A continued expansion into the biosphere permits states to avoid addressing issues of distribution and social justice: the promise of perpetual growth dulls our anger about widening inequality. By trampling over nature we avoid treading on the toes of the powerful.

Green Party | Public sector cuts are economically illiterate

I very strongly agree with Caroline's analysis - just as you cant sober yourself up by continuing to drink more whisky, you cant solve economic, social and environmental problems caused by business-as-usual growth with more...er...business-as-usual growth.

Green Party Public sector cuts are economically illiterate

In an article this week for Compass, Caroline Lucas, Green Party leader and MP for Brighton Pavilion, labels the coalition government's public sector cuts as "socially divisive ... environmentally disastrous ... and economically illiterate."

She goes on to emphasise that our economic prosperity "may be built on rotten foundations ... the growth that has paid for our welfare state is built on the exploitation of natural resources, and on the exploitation of people here, and round the world."

"When we talk of a green recovery, we're not talking about a traditional economic recovery boosted by selling some home insulation or building some windmills.

"Millions of environmental campaigners seem to seriously believe that we can address climate change, slow the loss of threatened species and habitats, manage chronic water and resource shortages and put an end to over fishing and continuing soil erosion, whilst pursuing pretty much the same kind of economic growth that brought these natural systems to the edge of collapse in the first place.

"In other words, the trade off appears to be to ignore the inevitable long-term consequences of business-as-usual growth in order to help to protect short term organisational effectiveness. It may make sense from a tactical point of view, but strategically it's unsustainable."

For the full article, please click here:
www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=11429.

Lancet: study on harm from drugs

Given the results of this study we should be taking significant action to tackle legal drugs eg alcohol and tobacco, as well as illegal drugs. Surely there is a strong case for increasing the price of both very significantly through higher taxation? The higher the price the more use is discouraged. We are after all cutting housing benefit, child benefit etc at the moment and the more tax we raise on undesirables like alcohol and tobacco the smaller any cuts would need to be.

BBC News - Alcohol 'more harmful than heroin' says Prof David Nutt

Alcohol is more harmful than heroin or crack, according to a study published in medical journal the Lancet.
The report is co-authored by Professor David Nutt, the former UK chief drugs adviser who was sacked by the government in October 2009.

It ranks 20 drugs on 16 measures of harm to users and to wider society.
Tobacco and cocaine are judged to be equally harmful, while ecstasy and LSD are among the least damaging...

The potential environmental costs of space tourism

Caught part of the Radio 4 program Material World last Thurs on the potential impact of space tourism, with soot pollution of the stratosphere being a key culprit. Given that the development of space tourism looks set to accelerate, this research and debate is very important.




The American Geophysical Union is warning that the environmental cost of space tourism will be greater than the $200,000 price tag passengers will be paying to travel on the Virgin Galactic spaceship when voyages begin in 2012. Marty Ross of non-profit research organisation The Aerospace Corporation in California and key author of the AGU's paper, explains why.

More here:

http://www.agu.org/news/press/pr_archives/2010/2010-34.shtml

http://www.aero.org/

http://www.virgingalactic.com/

Being positive about feminism: a new academic study - Philobiblon

Being positive about feminism: a new academic study - Philobiblon

Bristol business supports elected mayor as consultation ends | Bristol24-7

This may well be because they see it as it is - more power for business rather than more power for local people...not that I'm at all happy with Bristol City Council, the councils around it and the way they work (or rather dont work) together and with local people.

Bristol business supports elected mayor as consultation ends Bristol24-7

86% of the 200 GWE Business West members who responded to a survey said they favoured having an elected mayor. On Nov 16 Bristol City Council makes a decision on what they favour - I cant see the council voting for its power to be removed can you?

South Bristol to be 'transformed' by new Avon group | Bristol24-7

South Bristol to be 'transformed' by new Avon group Bristol24-7

I cant agree with this assertion from Ned Cussen of King Sturge - this new organisation will be dominated by business whose primary motivation is profit and not people and communities. Bristol City Council Leader Barbara Janke feels this is a devolution of power but where is the power for people in this this move??

BBC - Nature UK - Get invovled in nature on the web

BBC - Nature UK - Get invovled in nature on the web

The web offers some great ways you can talk to other nature lovers, share experiences and find answers to questions, all from the comfort of your computer (or even mobile phone). A warning though – they can become very addictive!...

Several green spaces petitions handed in and applauded again and again

PEOPLE opposed to plans to sell off swathes of green space across Bristol packed into the Council House last night to hand in petitions filled with thousands of signatures.

Residents from across the city received round after round of applause as they each presented bulky petitions to councillors and delivered passionate speeches at the end of a five-month consultation into the project. Dog walkers, boy scouts and brownies were among those who united to vent their anger at the proposals to sell 90 acres of parkland at a meeting of Bristol City Council's cabinet. Residents attacked plans to sell green space they claimed was regularly used for recreational and sporting activities or as a tranquil getaway from hectic city life...

THE Conservatives have tabled a motion calling for the £87 million plan to sell off up to 62 green spaces across Bristol to be scrapped.

Its not often that I have cause to praise the Conservative Party in Bristol but on this occasion I have to say well done to them for changing their minds and calling for the councils plans to sell green spaces to be abandoned, especially given the strength of the widespread public opposition. I hope that Labour and maybe even some Lib Dems will support the Tories on this - and respect local people's wishes.

THE Conservatives have tabled a motion calling for the £87 million plan to sell off up to 62 green spaces across Bristol to be scrapped.

The group has also launched an online petition for people to support the motion [click here to sign]

Councillor Mark Weston (Henbury, Conservative) said: "Public consultation has clearly shown that Bristolians simply do not want to lose any more of their recreational space.
"The area green space plans are fundamentally dishonest, in that many potential plots of land suggested for sale are not, as previously promised, of low value or quality.
"This version of the strategy has also proved itself to be extremely divisive, in that it requires some wards in the city to make land sacrifices not shared by others."

Labour group leader Helen Holland told the Evening Post she didn't want to pre-empt her group's response to the Tory motion, but she criticised the consultation process.
She said: "The consultation has been flawed, with a lack of information.
"The one thing you need to do if you want major change is have absolute transparency."

Councillor Tess Green (Southville, Green) said: "The Green Party has always opposed selling any green space which is valued by local people, although we could see the logic of selling off space that is not valued in order to improve green space more generally.
"The voice of local people has been very strong on this issue and needs to be taken seriously."

New energy and environment blog

Interesting new blog on energy and the environment has just started up. Check it out here:
http://energyandenvironmentblog.blogspot.com/.

How departments dealing with energy, climate change and environment fared in the spending review

DECC AND DEFRA: STILL ALL TO PLAY FOR (Jonathon Porritt)


Overall conclusion [Energy and Climate Change]: Chris Huhne just about passes his CSR test, but won’t be counting any green chickens yet.

Overall conclusion [Environment, Food, Rural Affairs]: outright failure. Spelman was already the weakest Minister in the pack before the Comprehensive Spending Review, and emerges from it as little more than the Secretary of State for Degreening, Intensive Agriculture and Rising Floodwaters.

BBC News - Caroline Lucas: 'Brussels more efficient than Westminster'

BBC News - Caroline Lucas: 'Brussels more efficient than Westminster'

Flog the green spaces of the poor, give the money to the rich?

More on council plans to flog parks and green spaces in poorer areas - and raise money that could be spent in richer areas! Good for Clifton and Cabot that their green spaces wont be sold but in that case cant Hartcliffe, Southmead, Brislington, Stockwood etc be treated the same?

Not a single plot of land in either Cabot or Clifton has been put forward for sale, but they have one of the longest lists of parks that could be improved...

CASTLE Park in the city centre could be revamped as part of the green spaces plan, with a new footbridge crossing the River Avon.

Cuts threat to public order, public safety, public security

Spending cuts on this scale, at this pace, and of this nature, threaten many aspects of public life - not least public order, safety and security...

BBC News - Spending Review: Police 'not ready for budget cuts'

A police watchdog says it has "real concern" whether police authorities can manage cuts in the Spending Review.
HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) said less than one in five of the bodies it examined were ready to help forces cut effectively.
The Home Office will cut police funding by 20% over four years, with chief constables warning of job losses...

Simon Hughes - add action to your words and make change on housing benefit cuts happen

Simon Hughes' words on housing benefit changes - 'harsh and draconian' - are right but I want to see him and others like him back their words with actions. A roof over your head is a basic need and the changes risk significantly increasing homelessness - on top of all the extra risk of a lot more unemployment, cuts in councils services and so on...

Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes is threatening a backbench rebellion over planned cuts to housing benefit.

The party's deputy leader told Channel 4 News some of the proposals were "harsh and draconian".

In its Spending Review last week, the government announced major changes to housing benefit - including cutting it by 10% for the long-term jobless....

...The government is proposing the biggest shake-up in housing in decades - cutting money for new social housing by 50% and allowing housing associations to charge new tenants close to the full market rate for rent...

Ministers plan huge sell off of Britain's forests - Telegraph

Ministers plan huge sell off of Britain's forests - Telegraph

Caroline Spelman, the Environment Secretary, is expected to announce plans within days to dispose of about half of the 748,000 hectares of woodland overseen by the Forestry Commission by 2020.
The controversial decision will pave the way for a huge expansion in the number of Center Parcs-style holiday villages, golf courses, adventure sites and commercial logging operations throughout Britain as land is sold to private companies.

Stockwood Pete: Strategic Diversions in the Parks

Great post that comprehensively trashes the councils policy of flogging off Bristol's green spaces.

Stockwood Pete: Strategic Diversions in the Parks

BBC News - UK needs green economics minister, advisers urge

BBC News - UK needs green economics minister, advisers urge

Q and A on the huge green spaces sell off that's backed by Lib Dem, Labour and Tory Cllrs

Q THERE has been vocal opposition to a quarter of the areas put forward for sale at the very least – is that an acceptable number?

Just added the comment below to this Evening Post article on green space flogging (link above) to correct the errors made by two 'conveniently forgetful' Lib Dem Cllrs...

This statement in the article is incorrect 'The whole point of the strategy, which all parties signed up for..' because the Green Party opposed the Parks and Green Spaces Strategy sell off plans from the very beginning and are still opposing them now.

Cllr Rogers comment 'The Area Green Space Strategy was supported by all three parties on the council' is wrong because there are four parties with councillors in Bristol - and one of them, the Greens, opposes the large scale green space flogging. Cllr Rogers is right to indicate that Labour, Conservative and Lib Dem Parties all backed this extremely unpopular and short-sighted green spaces sell-off.

*

Update: Just added a further comment (below) because Cllrs Rogers has replied saying, 'There remain only three parties on Bristol City council - the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and the Labour Party.The Green Party do have a councillor on the council, but one person is not regarded as a party! The Green Party councillor did, as Mr Vowles suggests, vote against a proper green space strategy for Bristol.'

*

Cllr Rogers - its clearly ridiculous and absurd to say that there are three parties on the council. The Greens have an elected Cllr - fact. Because it is one person does not mean the party does not exist it simply means that Green Party GROUP STATUS is not recognised (until there are at least two Cllrs ie next May!). If you were fully open and honest here you would tell the whole truth ie that there is a Cllr representing a party on the council that opposes these green space sell-off plans. The Greens do not recognise the current approach as a proper green spaces strategy because of its flog off plans - and looking at the scale of opposition it appears that Bristol's public agree with us not the Lib Dem, Tory and Labour Cllrs that all endorse it.

Thousands sign petitions to save Hartcliffe and Bishopsworth green spaces

MORE than 1,000 people have signed a petition demonstrating against the proposed sell off of land in Hartcliffe, and 800 more in Bishopsworth.

...Keith Way lives in Hartcliffe and is concerned about the proposal to sell off two plots of land along Valley Walk, which includes Pigeonhouse Stream.

He said: "We've got a lot of wildlife in south Bristol, I don't think people realise.
"That's a nice quiet park, lots of trees, good for wildlife.
"These sites should never have been put forward in the first place."

Environmental campaigner and former Hartcliffe resident Glenn Vowles has been involved in the petition against this part of the proposals, so far signed by around 120 people.
A petition against the general proposals for Hartcliffe has attracted more than 1,000 more.

Mr Vowles said: "I look at it from a quality of life, health and wellbeing point of view. You need green spaces to provide a decent standard of life.

"People simply don't like the sell off policy. It seems to be a sales target for selling off land.
"Like so many council consultations, most people you talk to have not known about it."...

When Fairness sticks in your throat (Jonathon Porritt)

When Fairness sticks in your throat (Jonathon Porritt)

...So how does Nick Clegg deal with this? Predictably, he sets out to shoot the messenger, attacking the Institute of Fiscal Studies for getting it all wrong with their “distorted” methodology. “Complete nonsense”, he claims. All very embarrassing when you think that the IFS was one of the Lib Dems’ favourite independent think-tanks before power corrupted their judgement...

£1 billion...er...'stealthy' nuclear submarine...

Apparently we are in the process of building two more of these
'£1 billion',
'stealthy'
nuclear submarines - but with three of them running around [or should that be running aground] instead of one are we three times as likely to experience just how stealthy they really are? Just how justified is our high defence spending?

BBC News - Grounded nuclear sub dragged free

A nuclear-powered submarine which ran aground in shallow waters off the Isle of Skye has been towed free, the Royal Navy has said.
A tug had been carefully pushing along one side of HMS Astute, which got into difficulty a few miles from the Skye road bridge.
Described as the stealthiest ever built in the UK, the £1bn boat was out on sea trials and was not armed....

Poor suffer most from spending review cuts

Deputy PM Nick Clegg is very unwise and unmeasured indeed to launch such an outspoken attack on the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) - using words like 'frightening people' and 'airbrushing' - because it is very widely respected for its expertise, independence and authority. This is not good leadership and in fact both Nick Clegg and Chancellor George Osbourne praised the IFS highly during the summer general election! Take a look at why the IFS regard the spending review as on the whole affecting poorer people more than richer people here. For me it makes very good sense to conclude that the poor will suffer most because they are the ones most reliant on the public services and benefits that have been savagely cut - and even the government's own figures (see image), calculated in their own way, show that the bottom 10% are hit hard. Government attempts at making the cuts 'fair' are far too small.

Spending review: Clegg attacks "nonsense" IFS warning - Channel4 News

More on this issue from:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11598234

http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/6397563/ifs-the-spending-review-was-regressive-sorta.thtml

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9113000/9113265.stm

http://www.jrf.org.uk/blog/2010/10/spending-review-progressive-or-regressive

Countering the cuts myths - Red Pepper

Excellent piece in Red Pepper: Countering the cuts myths

The government and the press say we are in the grip of a debt crisis caused by the ‘bloated’ public sector. Here, Red Pepper debunks the myths used to push cuts to jobs and public services...

Thanks to Charlie Bolton for pointing me in the direction of this article - its a good read with important information.

Supermarket plans thrown into turmoil

Its a good decision to refuse Tesco permission for new windows and doors etc as they would have drastically changed the appearance of the former Friendship Inn, with the top and bottom parts of the building also mismatching - but permission should have been refused for the cash machine, condenser and air conditioning units too. Discussions referred to in the report below should include representatives of the local community in broad terms, not just council officers and/or councillors, though I strongly suspect it wont as Tesco have had no such contact right from the start - that's how interested in the local community they are!!

PLANS to turn a former pub into a Tesco Express store have been thrown into turmoil because councillors have refused to give planning permission for a new shopfront.

...Afterwards a planning consultant working for Tesco said the decision was frustrating and there would now be a meeting to discuss the issue, before the company made its next move...

What public spending cuts will mean for you

JOB losses, service cuts and more expensive public transport are all on the way for the Bristol area as part of the government plan to slash the country's £109 billion deficit

For me yesterdays spending review announcements are a direct assault on most things that involve the concept 'public' - including the general public themselves.

Green view on today's spending review

Budget to destroy a million jobs

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP has called George Osborne's comprehensive spending review a "budget to destroy a million jobs" - and has again argued that the worst cuts could have been avoided by an alternative policy based on a fairer tax regime.

Caroline Lucas said immediately after the budget statement:

"This is a budget to destroy half a million jobs in the public sector, according to the government's own estimates. And the knock-on effects will be at least as many jobs lost in the private sector."

The Brighton Pavilion MP added:

"When those public sector workers find themselves out of work they will, along with disabled people, feel the full force of the additional £7 billion worth of cuts in welfare spending, on top of the £11 billion of cuts announced in June. The housing benefit regime will become much more harsh, risking a rise in homelessness.

"They will also find that the loss of public services that this budget represents will massively disadvantage them, and all the most vulnerable people in society who rely on those services."

She asked:

"Where's the fairness in a budget that lets vital public services go to the wall, hitting the poorest hardest?"

Britain's first Green Party MP concluded:

"This was a budget of false economies, undermining the economy and hitting the most vulnerable - and all, incredibly, under the banner of fairness."

Green Party | Caroline Lucas MP makes case for nuclear cuts to save essential services

Green Party Caroline Lucas MP makes case for nuclear cuts to save essential services

Green Party leader Caroline Lucas MP today published a report identifying well over £100 billion of potential savings from nuclear arms projects and subsidies to the nuclear power industry.

In the report Britain’s first Green MP argues that cancelling the Trident renewal will save over £100 billion, while axing proposed new nuclear power stations will save the UK taxpayer around £8 billion in nuclear waste costs...

The report can be downloaded here: http://bit.ly/b9UnqL

THOUSANDS of people have signed petitions against the loss of green spaces across this part of the city.

THOUSANDS of people have signed petitions against the loss of green spaces across this part of the city.

Man ring-fences his beer from spending review cuts...

Very interesting exercise, easily showing the limits of the governments comparison of the UK budget deficit to a household budget or a person's credit card bill.

BBC News - 'My own personal Spending Review'

...the coalition government has used the comparison with household budgets to make the case for its own cuts....At the Liberal Democrat party conference, Nick Clegg compared the UK to a family which earned £26,000 while spending £32,000 a year on top of £40,000 debts. David Cameron has also described the deficit as "a bit like our credit cards - we all know the longer you leave it, the worse it gets".

Nonetheless, this line of reasoning has its limitations, Malcolm Sawyer, professor of economics at the University of Leeds, says.

He argues that, because about a third of the government's debt is owed to pension funds, repayments are going from one set of taxpayers to another.

"Politicians like to refer to the image of the housewife doing her weekly shopping budget - it's a powerful analogy that's easy to understand," he says.

"But the reality of why governments run up deficits is harder to explain in a soundbite - it's because tax revenues collapsed."...

Aircraft carriers with...er...no aircraft: alternative use proposed

This use of aircraft carriers without any...er...aircraft has apparently been put forward by the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition Govt - obviously the 'greenest government ever' - in order to counter one of our real security threats, climate change. Perhaps it will be followed by flowers in guns instead of bullets, bombers turning into butterflies above our nation.... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/normantebbit/100059722/defence-review-aircraft-carriers-without-aircraft-are-like-a-pub-without-beer/

Capitalist ideology dominates cuts decisions

Excellent piece by George Monbiot (see quote below). The spending cuts process is dominated by Tory capitalist ideology more than practical necessity. The Lib Dems are backing the Tories to the hilt - so much for Vince Cable's concerns about capitalism (this never did have substance anyway especially given that he is privatising the Royal Mail and backs the establishment of a free market in tuition fees...ie he is extending capitalism!! More on this issue soon.).

Monbiot.com » Britain’s Shock Doctrine

...Public bodies whose purpose is to hold corporations to account are being swept away. Public bodies whose purpose is to help boost corporate profits, regardless of the consequences for people and the environment, have sailed through unharmed. What the two lists suggest is that the economic crisis is the disaster the Conservatives have been praying for. The government’s programme of cuts looks like a classic example of disaster capitalism: using a crisis to re-shape the economy in the interests of business....

Stockwood Pete: Cutting the debt? No, adding to it

Stockwood Pete: Cutting the debt? No, adding to it

ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne paved the way for a new power station at Oldbury but shelved plans for a Severn barrage for at least five years.

I'm glad to hear that the severn barrage has been shelved - its very expensive and in fact would destroy beautiful and valuable estuary ecosystems (pictured) and some land on either side too. [Interesting to read in the story below that my MP Dawn Primarolo thinks the barrage is actually a green idea - she's never understood what green action means].


The pro-nuclear stance of the Govt is wrong however because nuclear leaves an extremely expensive and extremely toxic legacy of nuclear waste for future generations. Its very much the wrong technology choice, with the prospect of large delays and cost overruns too.

While we are so very wasteful and inefficient with our energy use how can we justify building any kind of power station?

ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne paved the way for a new power station at Oldbury but shelved plans for a Severn barrage for at least five years.

Choices and cuts

What are the merits of taxation? Are we about to learn of its merits when we hear about the huge cuts in public spending affecting many vital public services? There are choices but to listen to the Conservative-Lib Dem Coalition Government one would think not. There's the balance between raising more in taxation vs cutting spending. There's the speed and scale of spending cuts (and tax rises). There are the areas or people to tax more and areas to cut spending on. Already I believe a serious error has been made by not cutting defence spending more, when they are so bad at controlling their costs and getting value for money. And why those child benefit changes that dont take account of the whole of a household's income? Universality for child benefit has very clear advantages. I heard on the local news about Bristol City Council's plans to cut the amount spent on dealing with homelessness by hundreds of thousands - wrong because a roof over your head is a basic need and also counterproductive in my view because this spending helps people to become settled, working, productive, tax paying people who might otherwise be a big cost society in many ways.

BBC News - Biodiversity - a kind of washing powder?

Excellent articles by Jonathon Porritt, Kate Rawles, Prof Jonathan Baillie and Chris Knight here

BBC News - Biodiversity - a kind of washing powder?

Despite awareness of biodiversity increasing, some people still think it is a washing powder.

When 2010 was named as the "year of biodiversity" by the UN, it began with a plea to save the world's ecosystems.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: "Biological diversity underpins ecosystem functioning... its continued loss, therefore, has major implications for current and future human well-being."...

Green Party | “Free market in tuition fees can only increase inequality” – Green Party leader

Green Party “Free market in tuition fees can only increase inequality” – Green Party leader

Responding to Lord Browne’s report on university funding, Britain’s first Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said:
“The Browne review is simply a bid to shift the cost of education away from the state and onto the student.
"It will mean our public degrees will be among the most costly in the world. Many people will be priced out of going to university. A free market in tuition fees can only increase inequality.”
The Greens said the Browne review’s findings were “not appropriate for a country that values social mobility and inclusiveness.”

Climate Change Denial » UP IN LIGHTS

Another great post from George Marshall - this time pointing out the inconsistencies and contradictions in the campaigns of some environmental groups.

Climate Change Denial » UP IN LIGHTS

UK 'short of environmental skills' - Green Living, Environment - The Independent

UK 'short of environmental skills' - Green Living, Environment - The Independent

Britain could run short of people able to tackle urgent environmental challenges within the next 10 years unless skills gaps are plugged, a report warned today.
It identified 15 critical skills in short supply, including numeracy, computer modelling and conducting field research, as well as skills such as translating complex research into plain language.
Unless the shortfall is filled, Britain will find it harder to solve pressing issues such as environmental risks to human health, safe carbon capture and developing new energy sources, it added...

Water Words

Pairs of words that sum up a lot of water issues: life’s essential; renewable...potentially; community rooting; unevenly distributed; wasted widely; polluted commonly; rich, 100’s l; poor 10’s l; piped...UK; carried...Africa; city...leaks; extremely useful; farming, mostly; cooling, cleansing; ‘universal’ solvent; reservoirs, dams; socio-environmental havoc; community uprooting; climate changing; needs...wants; conflict prevention; modest measures; efficiency, accessibility; massive benefits!
http://blogactionday.change.org/

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/

Wealth: water or diamonds? What is worth more to the thirsty and hungry?

Ed Miliband drew on the well known Oscar Wilde quote ‘What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.’ in his first conference speech as Labour leader. Strange coming from a man who directly equates ever increasing money flow through our economy (GDP growth) with progress and wellbeing. Ed, along with Tory David Cameron and Lib Dem Nick Clegg, supports and advocates a corrupted notion of wealth which is narrow, materialist and cash-value centred.

Wealth creation has come to mean the stockpiling of affluence, running down finite natural resources, wasting and mismanaging potentially renewable resources like water such that many people around the globe struggle even to get enough to drink and wash. What is worth more to the thirsty and hungry – water or diamonds?

‘Value’ is largely what can be bought and sold if you have Ed’s (and Dave’s and Nick’s) view. The rich continue to hoard, deny the poor, and build for their leisure, recreation and luxury. The poorest around the globe continue to be unable to meet their basic needs such as decent public clean water supply and healthy sewage disposal systems. In fact the rich (and relatively speaking that’s most of us living in the Western hemisphere) are rich precisely because others are poor – GDP growth, Ed’s, Dave’s and Nick’s primary focus, has been very large over many decades and in many countries but numbers unable to meet basic needs are also very high!

We are GDP growing out of proportion to the proper, healthy working of life support systems. These systems include: those that can continually supply rainwater; those that keep our climate in a reasonably stable balance; those that process our soils, keeping them productive; many that keep ecosystems in a diverse state. Furthermore, we are sapping the energies and threatening the existence of the whole interconnected water, air, soil and biodiversity system – yet this is the source of our resources and the basis of our lives and thus is our true wealth.

We are also GDP growing out of proportion to the healthy working of socio-economic systems. Acting on the notion of wealth creation as increasing money flow through our economy has resulted in relatively small numbers of individuals and institutions with inordinate, concentrated cash and property. This inequality and unfairness decreases quality of life and as time passes is increasingly destabilising. Very strange, then, that Ed – and Dave and Nick – talk so much about building a fair society.

To benefit people and planet, GDP growth needs to pass tests of: efficiency; renewability; respecting environmental limits; building stronger local communities; meeting needs now and in the future; local and global fairness; health, wellbeing and quality of life. This means taking a very different view of wealth.

For more on water and related issues see: http://blogactionday.change.org/

Oxfam 'Sow the Seed' of hope event on College Green

Bristol political leaders join top chef to urge action on climate change Oxfam South West stages event at College Green to call on world leaders to ‘Sow the Seed’ of hope

Political leaders from across the political spectrum in Bristol were joined by one of the city’s top chefs at College Green this morning, to urge more action from world leaders on climate change.
Council leader Barbara Janke, deputy Labour leader Mark Bradshaw, Green Party Councillor Tess Green and Liberal Democrat councillor Anthony Negus said they were delighted to support Oxfam South West’s ‘Sow the Seed’ campaign.

Meanwhile, one of Bristol’s finest and most respected chefs – Chris Wicks, from Bells Diner in Montpelier, which has just been named as one of Britain’s top 100 restaurants – came along in his chef’s outfit to back the campaign.

More than 100 ‘Sow the Seed’ labels were planted in the ground outside the Council House, bearing Oxfam’s call for the international community to help farmers in the world’s poorest countries deal with the devastating effects of climate change.

Speaking at the event, Barbara Janke said: “Speaking as someone from Bristol in the center of a major food-growing area, we are more sympathetic than most to the effects of climate change on farmers in the developing world.

“We’ve seen in Pakistan floods the most recent dramatic effect of extreme weather, but this is clearly affecting people around the world, where climate change is already affecting food production and their ability to be self-sufficient.

“We need to address climate change as a global problem and raise awareness of how important this is.”

The event is part of a global week of campaign events that aim to highlight the devastating effects of climate change on food production in the world’s poorest areas.

In Pakistan, for example, up to 40 per cent of households in the flood-affected areas lost all food stocks. Fodder for livestock has also been lost, so even families who have been able to save some of their animals are struggling to keep them alive.

Mark Bradshaw said he was delighted the campaign was happening in Bristol and that the effects of climate change were something that we “cannot ignore”.

He also called for the introduction of a ‘Robin Hood Tax’ on banks to pay for the world’s poor to adapt to and survive climate change.

“In the current tough economic times it’s important that we don’t lose sight of the climate change agenda. Now more than ever do we need to invest in tackling it.

“That’s why it’s so important to introduce a Robin Hood Tax so that the financial industry pays its full contribution to addressing climate change.

Chris Wicks, whose restaurant – a fixture in Montpelier for more than 20 years – prides itself on using locally sourced produce, added: “In my restaurant it is important for us to do our bit by using local products to cut down food miles. But it is essential that we help poor farmers develop their own industries.”

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: The Sow the Seed event at College Green is part of a series of events around the world during the week, highlighting the strength of the campaign to fight climate change. See: http://tcktcktck.org http://sowtheseed.org/ http://www.facebook.com/oxfamsouthwest

Picture caption: Back row, from left: Cllr Anthony Negus, Chris Wicks and Barbara Janke. Front row, from left, Mark Bradshaw and Tess Green

Oxfam works with others to overcome poverty and suffering
Oxfam GB is a member of Oxfam International and a company limited by guarantee registered in England No. 612172.Registered office: Oxfam House, John Smith Drive, Cowley, Oxford, OX4 2JY.A registered charity in England and Wales (no 202918) and Scotland (SC 039042)

Monbiot.com » The Values of Everything

Monbiot.com » The Values of Everything

...People with strong intrinsic values must cease to be embarrassed by them. We should argue for the policies we want not on the grounds of expediency but on the grounds that they are empathetic and kind; and against others on the grounds that they are selfish and cruel. In asserting our values we become the change we want to see.

Well worth reading the whole of this article - and spreading its details around.

The Daily (Maybe): 17 MPs vote for a chance for real change.

The Daily (Maybe): 17 MPs vote for a chance for real change.

Yesterday Parliament voted on whether to allow the people to decide on what kind of electoral reform they should go for. The majority of MPs decided to deny people the opportunity to opt for PR and instead instead that the only acceptable change was the dismal AV.

Not a single Lib Dem MP voted for this amendment, moved by the Greens leader Caroline Lucas MP, even though they say they are for PR!! Good on the Green and those Tory, SNP, SDLP, Labour, PC and Alliance MPs who voted for giving people the choice of which electoral system.

Ashton Vale stadium: 'MPs call for Councillors to commit unlawful acts'

Some very interesting comments on this post from the Ashton Gate Blogger. For example:

The MPs have written a letter calling on councillors to reject the Town Green Application so as to bring about a football stadium on the land for the benefit of the club and others.
Under the Commons Act 2006, the future use of and aims for the land cannot be taken into account.
By calling for the Councillors to do so, the MPs are asking them to commit “Misfeasance in Public Office”. This is where a public official acts knowing that he has no power to do the act complained of – causing detriment to the legal rights of some, for the benefit (commercial or otherwise) of others.
What a bizarre world we now live in where MPs call for Councillors to commit unlawful acts so as to overide the legal rights that have been given to local people by those very MPs only 4 years ago

says Harry T....rightly in my view.

And following on from this Still Waters says...

Just out of interest, does this act of inciting Misfeasance in Public Office toward BCC come under Misconduct in Public Office for the MPs? Maybe their Chief Whips should be nudged?

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04909.pdf

“there is often an additional offence that can be committed where someone ‘attempts, conspires, aids or abets, counsels or procures’ another offence. The problem with attempting to prosecute someone for such an additional offence is that the intent needed to be proved is both for the alleged attempt, conspiracy, aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring’ the first offence, but also the intent to commit the original offence.”
I think a bloody great big article in a newsrag is ‘proof enough’…

RESIDENTS have objected to more than half of the sites under threat of being sold off in Henbury and Southmead.

Er....Bristol City Council...the people of this city dont agree with your plans to flog off parks and green spaces! There's no shortage of evidence on this.

RESIDENTS have objected to more than half of the sites under threat of being sold off in Henbury and Southmead.

The Daily (Maybe): Meg Hillier: proof Ed Miliband doesn't care about climate change

The Daily (Maybe): Meg Hillier: proof Ed Miliband doesn't care about climate change

FAMILIES in Brislington turned out in a big show of solidarity against losing local green space to development.

FAMILIES in Brislington turned out in a big show of solidarity against losing local green space to development.

Green Party | Video - Response To Tory [and Lib Dem] Cuts

I'd add to the title that these are also Liberal Democrat cuts given that they are in coalition with the Tories...and we should remember that Labour under new leader Ed Miliband have committed themselves to something fairly similar to Alistair Darlings program of cuts.

Green Party Video - Response To Tory Cuts

In this video, Darren Johnson, Green Party member on the London Assembly, speaks out against the cuts announced at the Conservative Party conference.
Darren warns that the cuts planned by the coalition government will only damage the economy.
He also proposes an alternative way forward - as Caroline Lucas has raised in the House of Commons - aimed at taxing the wealthy and cutting programmes like Trident, rather than hitting the poor and the public sector....

Bristol's football and rugby clubs sharing one good, new stadium: eminent good sense

Letter from todays Evening Post that I agree strongly with:

I HAD a nightmare last night. I woke up in a sweat realising that I had definitely lost the plot. Was I going mad? I had dreamt that the directors of Bristol City, Bristol Rovers and Bristol Rugby actually got together around the same table – and discussed how one, state of the art stadium could be built to house one united Bristol City football club and Bristol Rugby. How wild was that?

The plans even included an athletics track, indoor sporting facilities etc that could rival other major cities. I simply had to wake up from this crazy nightmare.

Surely we are never going to achieve Premiership football status with two mediocre teams, or a Premiership rugby side with a struggling first division side. We do need creative thinking, vision, financial investment and a team of enthusiastic 'drivers' who could perhaps make my nightmare a reality.

It will never happen if things remain as they are and the City shows no ambition. My dream stadium was going to be built somewhere along the M4 / M5 corridor which has good connections to motorways and rail links whilst away from residential areas.

Thank goodness I woke up then and realised that I was having a really mad crazy idea, and that, thank goodness, it was only a dream. We must carry on here in Bristol with second best, of course.

Sonny,
Portishead.

BRISTOL City chairman Steve Lansdown raised £58 million yesterday by selling off shares in the stockbroker firm he helped to found.

Lansdown: now not living in the UK let alone Bristol or the West Country; now avoiding paying taxes here but clearly has made and is making shed loads of cash here....does he sound like someone committed to this country and this city to you?? Maybe someone would like to make the case for this man ??

BRISTOL City chairman Steve Lansdown raised £58 million yesterday by selling off shares in the stockbroker firm he helped to found.

Mr Lansdown – who has a personal fortune of £452m – recently bought a house on Guernsey and is now living full-time in the tax-free Channel haven.

Cameron's speech: little/nothing green

Some very perceptive comments on the Prime Minister's speech here - especially from George Monbiot (see extract below):

Cameron's speech: Guardian columnists' verdict Comment is free guardian.co.uk

So that's it, is it? Twenty-five words; 0.4% of the speech in which the leader of the "greenest government ever" lays out his vision for Britain. Here they are: "more green", "a new green investment bank, so the technologies of the future are developed, jobs created and our environment protected", and "carbon capture and storage". That, dear reader, is your lot. Even when Cameron recited a long list of his government's achievements, there wasn't a word about the environment.

That's not surprising, for its achievements to date are hard to detect.

A HOMEOWNER who faces the prospect of seeing his house demolished as part of a massive makeover for Knowle West has vowed to save it from the bulldozer.

Such is the determination and efficiency of Bristol City Council to fully involve people in decision making about the future of their homes and community that this poor chap didn't know about the plans, which include possible demolition, until this July! In fact the council are frustrating the attempts of locals to participate and manipulating meetings and events to favour the development plans that they have favoured since the start.

A HOMEOWNER who faces the prospect of seeing his house demolished as part of a massive makeover for Knowle West has vowed to save it from the bulldozer.

Germany's Greens second most popular party - The Irish Times - Thu, Oct 07, 2010

Germany's Greens second most popular party - The Irish Times - Thu, Oct 07, 2010

GERMANY’S GREEN Party has nosed ahead of the Social Democrats (SPD) in an opinion poll for the first time to become the country’s second most popular political party.
Some 30 years after emerging from Germany’s anti-nuclear, environmentalist and pacifist movements, the party has soared to 24 per cent support in the Forsa poll, published this morning in Stern magazine.
The SPD, with whom the Greens shared power for seven years until 2005, has slipped to just 23 per cent.