Rupert's Read

Intriguing post here, over at Norfolk Blogger: http://norfolkblogger.blogspot.com/2008/03/most-stupid-of-gaffes-giving-green.html [Do read the original post by Darren Johnson too, which is excellent.] What I find amusing is that Norfolk Blogger has blown his top at the giving of extra publicity to the Green Party, and, by means of doing so, has of course... given extra publicity to the Green Party! Nice own goal there, Norfolk Blogger! Thanks!! :-)

   Norwich Airport and the airline 'Flybe' are making national and international headlines today in the worst possible of ways. Flybe recently hired actors to fly on extra flights that it laid on specially, and pointlessly, in order to reach targets for passenger numbers laid down by Norwich Airport .   Norwich City Council is a shareholder in Norwich Airport .     My comment on this : "This story is an absolute farce. Flybe have brought disgrace upon themselves and upon Norwich Airport through their actions. What is needed now is for Norwich Airport to alter their rules, so that never again are there economic incentives on airlines to engage in this kind of systematic deception and utterly anti-environmental behaviour. For example, a charge made by the Airport per flight upon airlines would discourage empty or extra flights, and incentivise airlines to fill up what flights they laid on with bona fide – paying! – passengers. Norwich ...

Green Party Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas MEP will be launching the national Green Party local elections campaign in Norwich. Thursday 3rd April, 5pm, outside the Forum, Norwich City Centre Green Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas will be in Norwich on 3rd April to launch the Green Party national local election campaign. The Norwich Green Party will also be launching their local election campaign, where they expect record gains on May 1st when they are projected to become the second party on the Council. Dr. Lucas and Norwich Green Party councillors and candidates will be launching the campaign, and will be available for photographs and interviews. Dr. Lucas, MEP for the South East and Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said "A Green vote is a vote for local communities, public services, healthy lives, environmental sustainability, peace and democracy - and, of course, a vote for seriously tough action on climate change. "People should be proud to dem...

The race for London Mayor is hotting up. It is closely-contested by Labour’s Ken Livingstone and the Conservative’s Boris Johnson. However, and thank goodness: the election system used for Mayor of London means that voters can pick whoever they want as their first preference and then transfer their vote ‘tactically’ using their second preference vote. The Lib Dems are polling poorly, and are likely to drop below their score of 2004. Green Party candidate, Sian Berry , is charismatic and dynamic, and it may well be that it is the Green Party that profits this time from this ‘alternative vote’ system. In short: Sian Berry is increasingly likely to get the highest-votes ever received by Mayoral candidates for the Green Party in a mayoral race. I'm in the probably-unusual situation of being friends with both Boris and Sian. Boris and I went to College together at Oxford and studied Philosophy together. Back then, in fact, we were political allies! Although we have totally diver...

Norwich Green Party: Help needed on polling day.   Last year, Norwich Green Party missed gaining an extra seat -- which would have made us the official opposition on the Council -- by one single vote...   We do not intend to repeat the same mistake, this year...   We need help throughout the campaign. But: If you can only choose one day upon which to help us, then please choose Polling Day. Apart from many other jobs we are aiming to staff lots and lots of polling stations with 'tellers' (smiling people with Green rosettes sitting outside polling stations) between 7am and 10pm. (15 hours). That makes about 600 person-hours just for that one vital job - a job which anybody (with a smile) can do!   If you or someone you know -- forward this message to them? -- could give us just a few hours, or even better, the whole day on May 1st, we will get nearer our target. It is a fact that with just a few extra person-hours last year we would have gai...

Rupert's Readers! Please help defeat dodgy plans by the Forestry Commission to trash a large area of lovely Norfolk woodland so as to extract gravel... Here is how you can help! It only takes a few minutes: http://www.hawitage.co.uk/HowtoObjecttoNCC/tabid/148/Default.aspx   [AND: Please pass this on / post /link to on your own blog!]     Thanks !

http://gaianeconomics.blogspot.com/2008/03/financial-crisis-their-gain-our-pain.html  Excellent post here from feisty green economist Molly Scott Cato. It is indeed obscene that some of the very institutions that got us into this appalling mess are now stacking up fat profits on the resultant panic. And we are paying the cost, and being 'gifted' a series of state mortgages... It's time, it seems to me, to start talking about nationalising the banks... As they were doing on no less an august national institution than the TODAY programme, this morning! ;-)  

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/mar/17/climatechange.carbonemissions ...John Vidal on the front page of today's _Guardian_, in a welcome story setting out what this blog revealed already in a series of posts over the last several months, most recently: http://rupertsread.blogspot.com/2008/01/proof-uks-co2-emissions-have-risen.html I repeatedly tried to put Ministers on the spot over this, during the last civic year; none ever responded to any of my messages/letters. Normally, one gets at least a form response to emails and letters to Ministers; often, one gets an informative response. I never got a single response of any kind to this line of questioning. The reason why, I believe, is implicit in today's _Guardian_ front page story: there IS no response. Our government has been caught with its pants down on this one. Spin = Lies; and meanwhile the atmosphere keeps on over-heating... The government ought to be really roasted (sic.) on this one...

 No doubt, readers, you are aware of the latest calamitous news from the world of finance this morning: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/mar/17/jpmorgan.useconomy1 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2008/03/red_fed_alert.html  The money markets need to be re-regulated. Fast, and deeply. Unsustainable levels of debt are an economic and ecological disaster in the making, as I argue here: http://ourkingdom.opendemocracy.net/2008/03/12/fantasy-of-eternal-growth-can-no-longer-be-sustained/  Greens are at the leading edge of what will be a growing movement, in this truly disastrous period in the world finance markets and economy, to stop the rot in a way that does not merely create a further bubble . Because that is what the Fed's actions yesterday - in reducing interest rates further and creating yet more liquidity - risk doing. If they see off this crisis -- I don't believe they will, but IF they do -- they will do so merely by so...

I am a member of the Joint Highways Agency Committee of Norwich City Council. Yesterday morning, it was announced at the Committee meeting that the implementation of the scheme allowing 'freight consolidation vehicles' to use the bus-and-bike lane on Newmarket Road will be delayed from March until May, to allow time to consider the very strong objections that have been raised against the scheme by cyclists, residents, the Green Party, the LibDems, and others. I was delighted, because the Council's consultation on this issue has been abysmal; this delay will provide a real opportunity for everyone to make their views known on it. I urge readers of this blog with strong views on the issue or personal experience of cycling on this road to get in touch with the Transport Officers at County Hall, over the next few weeks. We in Norwich Green Party believe that there are other better alternatives available than mixing cyclists and HGVs in narrow bus lanes. Why not, for instance,...

The Eastern Green Party’s Action Saturdays continue to be a success in providing an opportunity to exchange campaigning techniques as well as delivering important support where it is needed around the region. In the run up to the local elections this extra support will be crucial to reaching our goals on May 1st. Action Saturdays consist of a full day of campaign activity, including canvassing and leafleting. It is also a great chance to find out first hand what different local parties are doing, discuss strategies and become inspired from each others progress. Accommodation for overnight stay is usually available, and local parties often put on a social event in the evening to celebrate a good day’s campaigning. Click here for details of the first event on Saturday March 29th, and here for details of the following four events! Hope to see you there!

Fantasy of eternal growth can no longer be sustained Ourkingdom Low interest rates and easy money in the States and in Britain, and almost everywhere else, led to a crisis in the ’sub-prime’ mortgage market and then a credit crunch, which has brought on fears of a recession in the States and in Britain, and almost everywhere else. After a series of interest rate cuts, the latest response of central Banks including the B of E and the Fed has been $200bn of more easy money released by the latter and aggressive open market operations by the former directed towards the same end, along with co-ordinated actions to ease credit by all the other major central banks around the world. But let’s get the next part of the story straight - what will happen over the next several months/years, unless the current policy direction in these central banking institutions changes. Eased credit in the States and Britain leads to a further bubble in the ’sub-prime’ mortgage market and in ...

NEWS from Eastern Region Green Party and Norfolk Green Party Wednesday 12th March 2008 The Budget: Very Brown, not very Green... Whilst being trailed as a Green Budget, Alistair Darling's speech revealed it to be predictably a very Brown one with the barest tinges of Green around the edges. Before the Budget, the Green Party called for a genuinely Green approach as the urgency of tackling dangerous climate change becomes ever more acute. According to the recommendations of the Stern report - an economic assessment on climate change produced for the Treasury - Gordon Brown should be ensuring that the UK invests at an absolute bare minimum at least 1% of GDP per annum on reducing carbon emissions - but that's not happening and the Labour Government shows no sign of grasping this issue. A truly Green Budget would have delivered a major investment programme for renewable energy, reductions in energy demand through efficiency and the scrapping of airpor...

This is from Medialens - please read, the topic is vital and the data is chilling! ISRAELI DEATHS MATTER MORE The horrific shooting of eight young people at a Jewish seminary in Jerusalem last Thursday was followed by saturation media coverage. International statesmen lined up with condemnations of the attack and condolences for the victims and their families. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced: "This is clearly an attempt to strike a blow at the very heart of the peace process.” (Jon Smith, Press Association, 'Brown: massacre "strikes at heart of peace"', March 7, 2008) Foreign Secretary David Milliband described the slaughter as “an arrow aimed at the heart of the peace process so recently revived.” (Donald Macintyre and Eric Silver, 'Massacre in the heart of Jerusalem', The Independent, March 7, 2008) The Guardian’s front page declared: "the descent into violence in the Middle East accelerated last night" in a "dramatic es...

Here is my new term to describe those who (e.g.) go on objecting to wind farms in their locality, even after the MoD have withdrawn their objection: nimbeciles...  (or nimbyciles?)  

NEWS from Eastern Region Green Party   Tuesday 11th March 2008   BAA Plans to make Stansted bigger than Heathrow: Green Party vows to fight "lunatic" proposals every inch of the way    The BAA has today announced its planning proposals to turn Stansted into a massive airport larger than Heathrow is today, by building a second runway and expanding across the fields of Essex . Such a proposal was specifically ruled out by the planning inspector and the Government in the 1980s when Stansted waas orginally given consent to expand following a public inquiry.   The proposals would result in catastrophic damage to the countryside of Essex and are being fiercely opposed . People's homes would be bulldozed. There would be a huge increase in jet flights which would raise noise levels over Essex and nearby counties to unprecedented levels, causing annoyance, sleep disturbance and harm to children's education. Road traffic levels would...

 Monday 10th March 2008     With the Budget to be delivered in parliament by the Chancellor on Wednesday March 12th, the Green Party is calling for a genuinely Green approach, not a Brown one. According to the recommendations of the Stern report - an economic assessment on climate change produced for the Treasury - Gordon Brown should be ensuring that the UK invests 1% of GDP per annum on reducing carbon emissions - but its not happening.   Whilst the Labour Government under Gordon Brown has continued to make the right noises about tackling climate change the reality of its actions is very different. 2008 is set to be a crunch year for the UK on the issue of climate change. Government decisions are expected on a third runway at Heathrow, expansion of Stansted airport, urban growth proposals and major road schemes, many of which could impact on Eastern Region. If the go-ahead for these is rubber stamped by the Government, UK carbon ...

Subject: Open Letter to Ministers Malcolm Wicks and Des Browne : Call for enquiry into MoD Wind Farm policy March 2008 From: Councillor Andrew Boswell ( Norfolk County Council) and Councillor Rupert Read ( Norwich City Council)   Dear Mr Wicks and Mr Browne,   We are writing following the Ministry of Defence's announcement on March 5 th that it had withdrawn its opposition to three wind turbines at Hethel in South Norfolk (Eastern Daily Press, March 6 th ).    We welcome the news that this objection has been dropped and hope that this is a positive signal for renewable energy development in East Anglia .  This industry is crucial to our region and also in fight against dangerous climate change.    However, just a few weeks ago, the MoD told planning officers at South Norfolk District Council that they could not even guarantee that replacing the RAF Trimingham radar with the latest technology in 2009 would solve the pr...

This makes chilling reading. Vote Blue go Dead? This is the true face of the 'Conservative' Party...: HANSARD 5 Mar 2008 : Column 449WH Climate Change 2.30 pm Mr. Andrew Tyrie (Chichester) (Con): When I was at school, the standard orthodoxy in geography lessons was that we were on the threshold of a new ice age. Another orthodoxy was that the world faced an era of unparalleled mass starvation unfolding as a consequence of a Malthusian population growth trap. Forty years later the science of global cooling has been replaced by the science of global warming and the Malthusian crisis has been solved by man's capacity to adapt, using new technology. In the latter case, high-yielding crops delivered what became known as the green revolution. We need to be careful about swallowing orthodoxies. I have initiated the debate to make one straightforward point about the latest orthodoxy. I support the view that mankind might be contributing to global warming, but there is little eviden...