Rupert's Read

Check this piece out, along similar lines to those I myself have penned and pointed out previously, on this blog: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/10/tory-mep-confuses-science-with-faith/

The case for equality is overwhelming. So what policy-instuments do we need, to make it happen? I advocate the following two, as key parts of the process: • A maximum income differential in percentage terms between boss and lowest-paid employee in each company. And the differential should be narrowed in percentage terms each year. It should never be allowed to grow in absolute terms at all. (Similar laws, though just slightly less radical, are in place right now in (e.g.) Denmark.) • Wage rises should be on a cash-amount basis, not a percentage basis. In other words, everyone in a given organisation would get the same wage rise, each year, in monetary terms. Over time, this would reduce the percentage difference between high and low earning employees very considerably, and eventually might make it trivial. The beauty of my proposals (you need both, because the second one only applies if there is an actual wage/salary _rise_, which in a recession there is not nece...

Important stuff here from the Sustainable Development Commission, in line with arguments that I have made previously on this blog: http://www.sd-commission.org.uk/pages/redefining-prosperity.html Synopsis - Prosperity without Growth? The economy is geared, above all, to economic growth. Economic policy in the current recession is all about returning to growth - but an economic crisis can be an opportunity for some basic rethinking and restructuring. Two objectives other than growth - sustainability and wellbeing - have moved up the political and policy-making agenda in recent years, challenging the overriding priority traditionally given to economic growth. SDC's "Redefining Prosperity" project has looked into the connections and conflicts between sustainability, growth, and wellbeing. This project has now resulted in a major SDC report: 'Prosperity without Growth?: the transition to a sustainable economy' by Professor Tim Jackson, SDC's Economics Commissioner...

Check out Left Foot Forward piece rebutting the right wing press reports on the new Green Fiscal Commission results:  http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/10/revenue-neutral-green-taxes-have-public-support/

We mustn't help help fascists to look like victims, for, the reason that most people vote BNP is that they feel like victims, feel marginalised etc. . So it is important not to make the BNP look like their Party. The positive answer is community organising, proposing an alternative vision that has anti-racism and internationalism at its heart, etc. . That is what we need to be doing: not wasting time - in fact, counter-productively - trying to deny the BNP their 15 seconds of fame. This is what I myself have already been trying to do for years in fact, and especially in the elections I ran for this year.

'No Platform' is dead. We need to smell the coffee of political reality. And then celebrate the fact that the vast majority of the 8 million who saw Griffin on Thursday night saw an embarrassing / appalling car-crash performance by him. That needs to be continued and redoubled. The man and his ilk can be stuffed even more thoroughly than he/they were on Thursday night, in future debates, e.g. with us Greens. His endless lies need to be endlessly exposed to the cold light of truth. What we must not do is turn Griffin into a victim and martyr. The most likely way one would do that is by saying that he has no right to speak at all, even when he was (I'm afraid) elected.

  The BNP need to be taken on, and out-argued and out-organised. The only Party that might be able to do that is the Green Party. Because Greens have an unalloyed truth to tell that might just make sense to people, a real alternative to denial, hatred, and despair. This is the real task. When Peak Oil and Dangerous Climate Change start to bite viciously, that's when BNP support wil really start to increase. Green Party support has to stay ahead of it; as the old Parties die, we have to be ready to fight the real political fight.  

He's been elected; we have to deal with it now. Last night, on QuestionTime, it was reasonably well dealt with. I think Griffin did very badly for most of the evening. A nice indicator of this can be found on twitter: I recommend you all to read the hilarious and accurate tweets during the programme last night from realnickgriffin . What needs to happen now is: we need to build a viable alternative to the BNP that will appeal to the white working class. That is for instance what I am trying to do in my ward, which contains the most 'deprived' estate in Norwich. The only way in the end to defeat and bury Griffin for good is to change British politics, build from the ground up in communities, start to improve British society, and get Greens onto programmes like QuestionTime to really destroy his lies and rubbish and false solutions. Straw and Huhne and Tories will never be up to the job. 'No Platform' is over. It's time to expose the BNP and thrash th...

  "It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." Robert H. Jackson - United States Attorney General under Franklin Roosevelt        "The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy" Charles de Montesquieu (French Politician and Philosopher, 1689-1755) Politics ought to be the part-time profession of every citizen who would protect the rights and privileges of free people and who would preserve what is good and fruitful in our national heritage" Dwight David Eisenhower (American 34th President (1953-61) "The most important political office is that of the private citizen." Louis D. Brandeis (American Supreme Court Justice, 1856-1941) The job of a citizen is to keep his mouth open." Gunter Grass (German poet, novelist,...

The main 3 Parties barely disagree with each other any more, in this country. We live in a time when the prevailing economic system is consuming the 'ecosystem services' that facilitate it in the 1st place, and when that economic system has just comprehensively failed in its own terms and shown (literally) the bankruptcy of its own economics. It would be a real tragedy and indeed an act of collective madness at such a time to go from Tweedledum to Tweedledee, especially when the Tweedledee in question (the Conservative Party) has shown even less awareness than Tweedledum (New Labour) of the meaning of this massive visible economic failure and failure of economics, the financial meltdown. (Inheritance tax cut anyone, now?)   No. Now is a time for ideology. A time for ecologism; a time for investment (in a Green New Deal), not cuts; a time to redefine 'progressive' as meaning movement in the direction of equality. Now is the time to break the 3-Party consensus...

http://bit.ly/d7abM   :This blog post is a bsolutely right, in saying that "As soon as middle earners are excluded from welfare, services and levels of support deteriorate." When you abolish good universal benefits and make them means-tested or provide 'targetted', then then those benefits will lose perceived legitimacy, and within a decade the rich will be pressing to abolish the benefits in question altogether, on the grounds that "We never see any of this money, so why should we pay for it? These benefits go to people who should learn to stand on their own two feet..." 'Reform' is really on a roll now: two shite reports within a week... Here's my criticism of their rubbish report last week: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/10/reforms-road-to-ruin/  

You can't get much more impartial or magisterial than Richard Goldstone. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Goldstone  OK, the man may have Zionist sympathies ( http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull&cid=1251804583376  ); but he is a great man with a great record... the Israeli government's refusal to accept his report is nothing less than an international disgrace. Please consider signing this petition to endorse the Goldstone report and its acceptance by the UN Human Rights committee if you have not done so already. I was sent a link to this petition from the No.10 website, asking the Prime Minister to support the Goldstone report at the UN. I have done so, I hope you now will, too!: http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/GoldstoneReport/ [There is currently a counter-petition to this that has almost three times as many sign...

In the EDP today, a big frontpage piece on the (excellent) new city centre vision. But: The spin from the County about how the NDR is a precondition for the city centre vision is just a big and desperate lie. YET the EDP are reporting it as fact. It is ludicrous to pretend that a pedestrianisation strategy would be complemented by a massive and prohibitively-expensive road-building project...    For all things Rupert, goto www.rupertread.net

Zero-growth theory is the most scientific form of economics - mathematical economics (Georgescu-Roegen) as developed by ecological economics (Daly and Costanza: energy economics, and economics that takes ecology seriously). The basic point is this: the economy is a subset of the ecological system, not vice versa. Endless economic growth is a fantasy in a finite system. And we face the gradual decline of low entropy energy and materials into high entropy wastes, which is a very real limit that physics imposes on economics.

The great political task of our time, in a country such as Britain: _Not_ raising the 'living standards' of the poorest, but rather: narrowing the rich-poor gap. The great moral task of our time: _Caring_ enough about the future to moderate our consumption of the Earth, enough . The great work of our time: Having the vision to do our great political/moral tasks & the good sense to know that this will make us HAPPIER.    

  Important info from the reliable Lester Brown: good news, for once! Earth Policy Release October 14, 2009 U.S. HEADED FOR MASSIVE DECLINE IN CARBON EMISSIONS* Emissions Drop 9 Percent in Last Two Years http://www.earthpolicy.org/index.php?/plan_b_updates/2009/update83 By Lester R. Brown For years now, many members of Congress have insisted that cutting carbon emissions was difficult, if not impossible. It is not. During the two years since 2007, carbon emissions have dropped 9 percent. While part of this drop is from the recession, part of it is also from efficiency gains and from replacing coal with natural gas, wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The United States has ended a century of rising carbon emissions and has now entered a new energy era, one of declining emis...

One really basic point seems to have escaped people's attention. Framing the issue as 'Global Warming' is completely hopeless. As conservatives such as Frank Luntz have long known, 'global warming' sounds nice, and 'climate change' sounds harmless, even positive. The first reframe is this: it's 'global over-heat', or 'global cooking', or 'global over-heating'... It has to sound like what it IS. -- Rupert Read Green Party Councillor, Norwich. http://rupertread.net [If you have an urgent email for me while I am away from a regular computer, you may wish to try contacting me instead on rupertread+mob@gmail.com ]

The Tories' 'Green Deal' at their conference was as un-green (nuclear) as expected...we can in fact expect environmental issues to get pushed further and further back now that the Tories and Labour are arguing in ever decreasing circles about cuts and the economy...I think the fact that the environment didnt warrant a mention in Camerons' '10 Key Pledges' to the Sun says it all really.... http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/10/the-two-faces-of-the-tories-on-climate-change/

Excellent News! I have recently been invited to join the exciting new political blog 'Left Foot Forward' - a non-partisan blog for progressives providing evidence-based analysis on British politics, news and policy developments. Left Foot Forward is focused purely on the quality of policies and furthering progressive goals, particularly: A proactive and sustainable economic policy that creates jobs, pulls Britain out of recession and towards a low-carbon and more equitable future. Public services that work for, and are accountable to, local people and leave no one behind. Safe communities where poverty and inequality are tackled, and the victims of crime are put first. A multilateral foreign policy to tackle climate change, poverty, nuclear proliferation, genocide, terrorism, and disease. Below is an extract from my first contribution to the blog, entitled "Who can cut the hardest? The narrative firms up" . You can follow this link to read the article in f...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/05/cameron-conservatives-eu-eurosceptics Caroline Jackson, former Tory MEP, calls in effect for Daniel Hannan MEP and friends to be kicked out of the Tory Party, in today's _Guardian_. Her letter is very impressive; is the Tory Euro-rift going to explode again this week, at their Conference? Jackson writes: "Above all Cameron needs to have the courage to usher to the exit those party members who, so far, have shown no compunction in arguing loudly for an anti-Europe policy that strongly advocates withdrawal, offers no realistic alternative, and is not party policy." That's Hannan all over: see e.g. http://www.neurope.eu/articles/96134.php

Transition Norwich featured in 'Age of Stupid' sequel as it celebrates its first birthday Transition Norwich held its First Birthday Party on Sunday 4 th October 2009, where the new film 'In Transition'   film, was screened for the first time in Norwich.   Emma Goude's 50 minute documentary has input from Transition initiatives around the world. Norwich was the 50 th , there are now 1600, with thousands of related intitiatives aimed at living well and sustainably.    The film includes the unleashing of Transition Norwich at St Andrew's Hall last year, with interviews from several Norwich people,including Green City Councillors Rupert Read, and Ruth Makoff and County Councillor Chris Hull.   'In Transition' is the perfect sequel to 'The Age of Stupid'.  It tells the story of the generation that looked peak oil and climate change square in the face, and responded with creativity, compassion and genius. http://transitionculture.o...

There is a burning need for more honesty about why 'new media' are to some extent right-wing-dominated. A significant part of the answer is: money (and time). Blogs are of course miles miles cheaper than newspapers to launch and run. But to have a top notch blog and to have it really widely promoted, a lot of money, time and/or expertise comes in very handy indeed. Most greens and lefties can't afford to pay people to help them run / design etc. their blogs etc., and have to earn money rather than rely on unearned etc income. Right-wing people are in this respect (literally) better off, by and large. The Yanks are just lucky to have an Ariana Huffington prepared to bankroll progressive blogging / internet journalism. It is a rare rich person who is prepared to risk their own money backing politics that will work against their crude short term financial interests. This is the truth that dare not speak its name: ConservativeHome and other famous right-wing blogs rely on huge ...

A message to the Irish people: The European Union has great potential to be a force for good in this continent and this world. We can see some of this potential realised in the role it has played in preventing major wars on its territory since 1945, and more recently in the lead role it has played on matters environmental. But today, the E.U. is suffering from a legitimation crisis, a 'democratic deficit' of huge proportions. Since the Enlightenment the idea of self-rule by free and equal citizens has been the cornerstone of European democracy. Constitutions can give expression to this idea of shared freedom and thus serve as the basis for democratic institutions. They can, however, only do so, if we have reason to believe that the constutions are understandable and acceptable to the citizens. The Lisbon Treaty is effectively the constitutional treaty for the European Union. The major part of its content has been rejected in referenda in France and the Netherlands in 2005 and i...