Rupert's Read

  The excellent Anthony Barnett, founder of OUR KINGDOM, has replied [ http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/anthony-barnett/2008/06/27/are-the-greens-just-silly-sods#comment-463100  ], in a slightly ungracious manner in my view, to my most recent post on Our Kingdom about the Davis byelection [ http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/rupert-read/2008/06/26/the-real-civil-libertarian-candidate-stands-up  ]. My earlier post on Our Kingdom about this [see below] accentuated the positive [about what Davis had done]. This more recent post of mine to which Barnett has now replied [very negatively] accentuates the negative. Is that so wrong? Is it so unfair or unhelpful, to point out how bloody right-wing and unfriendly to freedom this man Davis is, in so many ways? Let me respond here more positively however to the helpful way in which Barnett brings his reply to me to a close. Barnett suggests the line that...

_Green party runs against Davis_ Thursday, 26 Jun 2008 11:38 politics.co.uk _The Greens are standing on a civil liberties platform_ The Green party have begun their by-election campaign against David Davis in Haltemprice and Howden. Paradoxically, the party are standing against him on a civil liberties platform, with claims Mr Davis is too authoritarian. Shan Oakes, the Green candidate, will be joined on the campaign trail by veteran gay and human rights activist Peter Tatchell. Green Party principal speaker Derek Wall said: "This by-election was supposed to be about civil liberties. But it's been called by a man - David Davis - who thinks it's okay for the government to lock you up for four weeks without even telling you what you're supposed to have done. "David Davis also believes that you should have no right to criticise the government within a mile of parliament." "So the Green Party had to stand. Someone had to stand up for civil liberties." T...

fROM TO-DAY'S _iNDEPENDENT_ _Polar scientists reveal dramatic new evidence of climate change_ By Steve Connor, Science Editor Friday, 27 June 2008 It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course to disappear entirely from the North Pole this year. The disappearance of the Arctic sea ice, making it possible to reach the Pole sailing in a boat through open water, would be one of the most dramatic - and worrying - examples of the impact of global warming on the planet. Scientists say the ice at 90 degrees north may well have melted away by the summer. "From the viewpoint of science, the North Pole is just another point on the globe, but symbolically it is hugely important. There is supposed to be ice at the North Pole, not open water," said Mark Serreze of the US National Snow and Ice Data Centre in Colorado. If it happens, it raises the prospect of the Arctic nations being able to exploit the valuable oil and mineral deposits below these a be...

Greens in Haltemprice and Howden getting some coverage with one of our key messages (Davis' enthusiasm for capital punishment), here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7476881.stm

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/campaignsblog.php/2008/06/26/the-green-party-will-stand-against-david My article just posted on Iain Dale's new TOTAL POLITICS website about the Green Party's standing against David Davis in the H and H byelection.

[This letter of mine has just been published in LOCAL TRANSPORT TODAY:]   Sir; I found it strange that your otherwise-excellent leader column, "The limits to going green" (12 June), dwelt only on the Conservative Party as a possible alternative to this failing Labour government. The next big electoral test for the government will be the European elections, which will take place in exactly one year from now. Those elections, because they are conducted under a proportional-representation electoral system, offer a level playing field for all Parties. The Green Party will be challenging Labour and Tories alike over the next 12 months, in the run-up to the Euro-election: challenging those Parties' fake green credentials, and offering instead an actual way out of the crisis now facing this country and this planet. As economic hardship starts to bite, you correctly note the Tories sidling away from the green agenda, and instead startin...

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3473 The Green Party's official announcement of our candidacy against Davis! Let's go!...

http://www.democracyforum.co.uk/haltemprice-howden-election/51025-grreens-will-stand-howden.html Fascinating enthusiastic online discussion of members of the public on the Green Party's prospects in the H and H [David Davis] byelection.

I am delighted to see that there is one serious Party that is going to contest David Davis at this unusual byelection that he has brought about: my own Party, the Green Party. Shan Oakes gave the following statement: "I've been selected as the official Green Party candidate After a democratic debate inside the Green Party about whether we should stand in this by-election, I'm thrilled to announce that today the national party gave the go-ahead to us standing in Haltemprice and Howden, after I was selected last night by the local party to contest the seat against the Conservatives' David Davis on July 10th. That's 16 days time!Our constituency-wide leaflet is due to go to the printers tomorrow, and we're starting campaigning in earnest. Any offers of campaigning help can be directed to Martin Dean at sokuto12 'at' sokuto12.karoo.co.uk I'm looking forward to highlighting the Tories' hypocrisy on civil liberties. "

Planning Bill set to bypass community concerns on major infrastructure applications in East Anglia The Planning Bill is before Parliament again today with the Government trying to gain the support of rebel MPs through a series of changes to the BIll. A coalition of environmental and conservation charities, representing more than five million members, say democracy will be squeezed out of the planning process.   The Green Party in Eastern Region agrees and is warning that there are no changes on offer which would make the Bill acceptable, other than scrapping it, and that if it becomes law, local communities will be bypassed when it comes to decisions on major infrastructure applications. The Bill proposes setting up an appointed Infrastructure Planning Commission.   East Anglia is in the front line for many major proposals over coming years including a second runway at Stansted airport, major new roads, a fleet of waste incinerators, new nuclear powers sta...

PRESS RELEASE: Cllr. Rupert Read, prospective Green Party MEP for the Eastern Region, today slammed Independent MEP Tom Wise after his arrest on suspicion of obtaining money by possibly several counts of deception (1), branding the former UKIP member 'a disgrace and a disaster for Eastern Region voters and to European politics'. Mr Wise MEP was suspended by UKIP in 2007 during a European Parliament inquiry over allegations that he claimed money to pay for one of his staff's wages but did not pass all the cash on to her. In May this year he then bragged how he had spent a day 'shamelessly dodging work' and how he 'milks the taxpayers for thousands every week in allowance and expenses claims... It's the opportunity to make shedloads of money. At the end of the day I made £2,000 this week.' (2) Cllr Read said "Tom Wise is a disgrace and something of a disaster for his Eastern Region voters and for European politics. He is som...

Police have arrested a Euro MP representing the East of England on suspicion of obtaining money by deception. Tom Wise, who was elected for the UK Independence Party but who now sits as an Independent, is being investigated by detectives on behalf of the European Parliament authorities in Brussels. Last night, a spokeswoman for Bedfordshire Police, which is conducting the inquiry, said: “I cannot confirm the name but we have arrested a man on suspicion of obtaining money by deception. At this stage we cannot say how many counts this is on.” Mr Wise is one of seven Euro MPs representing the six counties of the East of England - Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire - who were elected in 2004.Mr Wise, who lives in Leighton Buzzard, hit the headlines in May this year when he was accused by a national newspaper of bragging to an undercover reporter how he had spent a day “shamelessly dodging work” and how he “milks the taxpayers for thousands every week in...

Should we or should we not give the go-ahead to ‘polyclinics’ within the NHS? This is the biggest question facing health service policy. It faces us here in Norfolk and Norwich, because there is a proposal to replace the walk-in health centre in Thorpe St Andrew with a city centre ‘polyclinic’. That would apparently be a health centre grouping several GP practices with new facilities. I want to take an indirect approach to the question that I raised, above. I am going to talk about a book which can I think put us in a much better position to maybe answer it. The book is Alysson Pollock's magisterial NHS plc . The opening lines of its closing chapter, "The emerging health care market", make the stakes starkly evident: "The NHS is being dismantled and privatised. Very soon every part of it will have been ‘unbundled' and commodified... a new business dynamic is taking charge of the ways in which services are provided and patients are responded to. The ...

  PRESS RELEASE: Green Party joins call to preserve nuclear bunker Green Party lead Euro-Candidate Councillor Rupert Read today announced his support to local residents' bid for the preservation of a Cold War era bunker on Chartwell Road near the Constitution Hill roundabout in Norwich. Councillor Read said, "The use of this site for a road side restaurant is clearly inappropriate. The site should be preserved and turned over to community use." "This bunker is a relic from a time when the Cold War was very real and could have easily led to Nuclear War. It is part of our history and a memorial to a war that thankfully never happened." Campaigners are attempting to raise the money necessary to buy the site and are due to apply to English Heritage. Councillor Read added, "I urge the owner of the site to reconsider and allow campaigners the time they need to raise the money to buy the site."

Go to Peter Cranie's blog to vote for who YOU want to be the next Leader and Deputy Leader of the Green Party: http://www.petercranie.blogspot.com/

Below, important news on the failure of the E.U. to take action to curb incineration. If the EuroParl had done what our Green MPs suggested, then it would have made it harder and less attractive for Norfolk County Council to build an incinerator at King's Lynn (or at Costessey, still not 100% out of the question). Unfortunately, they didn't... SOUTH EAST GREEN EURO-MP LABELS EU VOTE ON DIRECTIVE A 'WASTED OPPORTUNITY' A plenary vote in the European Parliament today, which sealed an agreement on a second Council reading for the crucial EU Waste Framework Directive, was little more than a 'wasted opportunity', said the South East's Green MEP Caroline Lucas. Dr Lucas MEP said: "This patchwork compromise containing both positive and negative elements is a major lost opportunity to have made real progress on waste prevention. As well as promoting incineration, the compromise also includes two potential loopholes that are likely to haunt us in the future. ...

Only a vote for the Green Party can stop the 'Labour' government from turning universities into bastions of privilege for the rich, rather than what they should be: open centres of learning. Labour is planning to allow different universities to charge different fees to their students, a move which will price all but the rich out of Britain's best universities.  In response l ast week I had a motion overwhelmingly supported and adopted by the best ever attended annual University of East Anglia (UEA) staff assembly, expressing powerful opposition to the new Labour Government's agenda of privatising higher education. Learn more  here.

The Green Party is welcoming the clear No vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. 862,415 voted No, compared to 752,451 who voted Yes.   Cllr. Rupert Read, Lead Green Party candidate for the 2009 European Elections in Eastern Region said:   "The remote political establishment of Brussels has had their dream of ever greater centralisation of political power utterly shattered today.   People power has won. The voters of Ireland saw though the pretence that the Treaty was a harmless exercise and recognised it for what it is - a further draining away of democracy from member states.   The UK Government would not dare put this Treaty to a vote here as the majority No vote would be overwhelming.   Irish voters have sent a clear message on behalf of all the ordinary people of Europe - that the Euro elite have now got to stop their grand plans to rule the continent without consent. A new democratic settlement is needed for Europe that ...

http://www.opendemocracy.net/blog/ourkingdom-theme/rupert-read/2008/06/13/this-could-be-the-moment-the-freedom-debate-turns  

I'm feeling slightly smug at having -- as it seems -- correctly predicted earlier this week that the Irish voters would roundly reject the E.U. Constitution (aka 'Lisbon Treaty') -- see my micro-blog-posts ('twitters') at left on this blog. A certain Irish bookies are feeling decidly queasy, having ignored my prediction and started, stupidly, paying out to those who had bet 'Yes', before the votes were counted....: http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=f41ad2bc-9955-4e2c-8ee4-7328ad4d4ae7  

The Green Party has rejected Government plans both to "bribe" local communities to accept highly dangerous nuclear waste and to give an enormous indefinite subsidy to nuclear power operators. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/06/12/eanuclear112.xml   The Government plan is to allow operators of both existing and new nuclear power plants to hive off their responsibility for taking care of the waste that they produce, in return for a fixed payment. But the Greens are pointing to the huge financial risk and burden to taxpayers this will cause given the uncertainties and very long term nature of nuclear waste storage.   Cllr. Rupert Read, Eastern Region Green Party Lead MEP candidate in next year's Euro-elections, said:   "At a time when the Government is failing to balance its books and ordinary citizens are having to tighten their belts, it is outrageous that the fat-cats who profit from the unsustainable nuclear...

The amazing move that David Davis has made today might just be the catalyst that we can use to turn the debate on political and civil freedoms in the correct direction. When I heard the announcement live this lunchtime, it came to me in seconds that we might now -- finally -- be able to have a large-scale debate about 'civil liberties' in this country, and -- finally -- be able to get large numbers of people to reassess their continual sleepwalking into a police state. That we might at last have an opportunity to frame our fundamental post-Magna-Carta freedoms as something which it just isn't OK to put in the balance and weigh against 'the terrorist threat'. For, the moment we engage in such a weighing process, the argument is lost: liberty will always seem weigh less, against an imponderable terrifying threat. The most important things of all must not be allowed to be traded for an always-receding 'security'. Whether Davis will potentially b...

Further to my post of yesterday: I think that Norwich South now is a four-way marginal. The Tories are probably just about back in the frame, given their fairly strong showing in last month's local elections here [though they were pretty amazed not to win Eaton] and their high national standing. The LibDems, just by virtue of having been second in 2005 -- and by virtue of not having been wiped out completely on May 1st -- still cannot be completely ruled out. We in the Green Party are obviously the up-and-comers, with 1st place in the constituency two years running. And Labour hold the seat (though one confesses to delight that they were fourth in Norwich South this year)! The fascinating thing about 4-way marginals is that they can be won with as little as 26-27% of the vote...  And I know for a fact that people have been placing bets on the Green Party to win Norwich South (with William Hill)... All of which leads me to think that Adrian Ramsay has a real chance of ...

Several months back, this blog engaged in speculation about who might stand for the Leadership of the Green Party, if the referendum creating Leader and Deputy posts went through. Well, it did go through, and we are about to see if any of those speculations (or suggestions) were accurate or not: for nominations are about to open for the first-ever election for Leader and Deputy Leader of our Party... Who WILL stand? Then, as now, I hope that Caroline Lucas will stand for Leader and win. Though I also hope that there will be a contest for the post. And I'm going to say one thing new: I hope that my colleague, now the first-ever Leader of the Opposition on a Principal Authority Council, Adrian Ramsay, will stand for Deputy. I think it would be really exciting to have someone fresh and new, someone standing for the second most winnable Parliamentary seat for our Party (with Brighton Pavillion, where Caroline is standing, being the most winnable), putting themselves up fo...

An excellent post here by my fellow Green Party Target Region lead candidate in the North West, Peter Cranie, on the expenses etc scandals facing especially Tory MEPs at present, and about the very different response that we as Greens are making and would make to the situation of being MEPs. http://petercranie.blogspot.com/2008/06/expenses-tories.html Like Peter, I am committed if elected to being absolutely 100% transparent in my expenses etc., rather than abusing the system. Being Green means being clean: clean politics, especially in Europe, is more vital than ever, to combat the rising tide of quite-rational public scepticism about politics. You can trust Greens -- and, unfortunately, not many others -- to deliver clean politics.

What follows is my letter to Uttlesford District Council urging them to reject BAA's planned expansion of Stansted airport: Sir; In 2002, Uttlesford District Council held a referendum on the Government’s plans for more runways at Stansted Airport, and 89% of the respondents said no. In 2006, the BAA planned to increase the annual maximum number of passengers by 10 million, but those plans were also rejected by Uttlesford. These are just two examples of your Council’s excellent commitment not only to your own district’s concerns, but also to curbing the broader, devastating effects that such expansions would have on the environment. And now I understand that a decision to treble the capacity of the airport is to be considered by the Council. I would like to compliment the District Council on its outstanding efforts so far. You are in a position to play a leading role in challenging one of the most significant threats to the environment that we currently face and at each instance yo...

Today, is World Environment Day. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the world's climate; but also, with exactly one year to go to the 2009 European Elections, there is an opportunity to make this region – and the world -- a greener place to live: by electing a Green MEP. World Environment day is commemorated each year on 5 June, and is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The World Environment Day slogan for 2008 is Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy. The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the main greenhouse gas produced by society, is rising relentlessly and is now believed to be at a level not seen on the planet for nearly a million years. As lead MEP candidate for this Region, I fully support World Environment Day and the need to cut carbon emissions. Many people are doing their bit to make greener choices, but UK...

Last month I, along with Euro candidates from the other main parties, was asked the following question by Paul McAlenan : "Now that I know you are a candidate for Europe 2009 I would like to ask what your views are on architecture and our ‘built’ environment. Do you agree with me that there is far to much pastiche and that the architecture of our new housing whether its private or association has to derive out of the NOW." The candidates from both the Labour party and the Liberal party didn't respond.  The reply from the Conservative candidate (a trained architect) can be read by clicking here .  My response to the question follows...   "Of course new builds should be of the now. They should deal with the pressing social/global issues of the time. In the nineteenth century that was the Industrial Revolution. In the new millennium it is dangerous climate change. 30% of the UK’s carbon emissions come from the home. This figure need to be cut by a bare minimum of 80% by...

Mining of Canada's tar sands for the extraction of crude oil generates three times as many greenhouse gas emissions than from mining conventional crude oil in the country, according to report released Wednesday. http://www.pointcarbon.com/news/1.932163 This chilling story backs up the point I have been making in this blog for a long time now: unless we find a political way of stopping the phenomenon, then we are going to see Peak Oil's impact softened by moves that will rapidly escalate the climate crisis. In a nutshell: Peak Oil + Business as Usual = Climate Catastrophe

        Here in Norwich, as across Suffolk and Norfolk and indeed much of the country, all Parties are posturing          as defenders of our Post Offices (see blog entries on this, below).            Well: Here is some interesting information about the EU's Postal Services Directive.   The best explanation is at http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l33231.htm It makes reference to the existing legislation, which is detailed at http://europa.eu/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/l24166.htm   There is a press report from the European Parliament following the recent proposals at http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/background_page/056-8767-190-07-28-909-20070703BKG08766-09-07-2007-2007-false/default_en.htm    And the transcript of the debate - http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE...

The next big electoral test for the government will be the European elections, which will take place in exactly one year from now. Those elections, because they are conducted under a proportional-representation electoral system, offer a level playing field for all Parties. The Green Party will be challenging Labour and Tories alike over the next 12 months, in the run-up to the Euro-election: challenging those Parties' fake green credentials, and offering instead an actual way out of the crisis now facing this country and this planet. As economic hardship starts to bite, the Tories are sidling away from the green agenda, and instead starting to promote a traditional Tory tax cutting agenda. What they fail to see is that the crisis that we are now in is a result of strip-mining our environment: high food prices are caused by high oil prices and by incipient climate chaos; the financial crisis is caused by debt-fuelled borrowing to fund out-o...

Obama is the nominee. Thank goodness: he has more promise than any other Democrat Presidential candidate for two generations. How has he done it, against what 8 months ago was the near-certainty that Clinton would win? He has done it by reframing the issues. See for instance http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/research/rockridge/to-catch-a-wolf http://www.pensitoreview.com/2008/02/20/the-secret-of-obamas-success-and-why-hell-keep-winning-%E2%80%94-he-listens-to-george-lakoff/ http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/040 and, crucially, http://www.rockridgenation.org/blog/archive/2007/05/29/thinking-points-discussion-of-chapter-8-part-1-the-art-of-arguments [See also http://chumppolitics.blogspot.com/2008/05/dont-think-of-clinging-elephant.html ]. This -- reframing, generating words that win in a sustainable way, not mere spin with its temporary 'hit' and its cynical backwash -- is what the Green Party too needs to do. In a big way. I am working on a b...

Estimates vary, but, roughly, the world has only about 40 years of known oil reserves (and 65 years of natural-gas supplies) remaining. At current rates of consumption, that is to say, the world will entirely run out of oil before 2050. The world has enough coal reserves however to last an estimated 155 years, with some of the largest reserves being moreover in the two biggest oil-consuming countries, the US and China. Hidden inside these facts and figures is a threat to our future so vast that even now barely anyone thinking about our ecology dares to contemplate it openly. The threat is that of human beings turning to coal on a vast scale to replace oil and gas as they progressively run out – and of liquefying and gasifying coal on a vast scale, to directly replace them. Why is this a threat? Because the carbon consequences would be astronomical. The threat posed to our climate’s stability by the resurgence of coal as a mass-scale fossil fuel is terrifying enough. ‘Clean coal’ remain...