Rupert's Read

History seems to be repeating itself. New Orleans is being emptied to try to escape Hurricance Gustav. New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin ordered the city emptied this morning in the face of what he called "the storm of the century." http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-08-31-gustav-sunday_N.htm   It really is very simply, people. Vote Green, or the planet gets it... If we don't radically change direction, and soon -- if we don't take the massive measures required to preserve for ourselves a stable liveable climate -- then there really will be a new 'storm of the century' every couple of years... : Katrina, Gustav... The list will simply go on and on...  

News release from Eastern Region Green Party   Green Party Conference, September 5th - 8th London   -  Norwich City Councillor expected to be elected as first ever Green Party Deputy Leader -  Greens gear up for more election wins in 2009 and first seats in Parliament   The Green Party meets in London for its 4 day Autumn Conference on Friday September 5th. For full details visit    http://www.greenparty.org.uk/nextconference   The 2008 conference will be an historic occasion for the party. Following the debate and referendum carried out earlier this year, the Greens decided to go ahead with the election of a Leader and Deputy Leader.   The contest for Leader is between Dr. Caroline Lucas, Green MEP for South East England since 1999, and TV actor Ashley Gunstock.   T he sole Deputy Leadership candidate is Councillor Adrian Ramsay, Leader of the Opposition on Norwich City Council, w...

Feeling a bit chuffed! Because, as lead Euro-candidate for the Greens in a target region (Eastern), I'm today's picked as the Total Politics  'Daily Politico': http://tinyurl.com/6ofptb

http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2008/08/top-20-green-blogs.html Hooray! From a standing start [my blog has been in existence for less than a year] I've made it into Iain Dale's Top 20 Green Blogs. (Jim Jepps is a well-deserved number 1, by the way.) The list is one I am really quite proud to be in the company of...  

In just over a week from now (5th September), an historic Green Party Conference will begin in London: the Conference at which the election of our first-ever leader will take place. All Green Party members and supporters want a Party that works well, a Party that punches above its weight, a Party that will deliver the successes and the desperately-needed policy-changes nationally that Greens are already achieving all over the country, locally. A key part of this extension to the national stage is happening now by the very act of our holding our first-ever election for a leader (the election is by postal ballot, and will formally end at Conference). But this, and our growing professionalism across the piste, is not enough. We need a leader who is engaging, inspiring and who can captivate the hearts and souls of the electorate. We need a leader who ouzes warmth and passion, someone who can reach people from all backgrounds in society. We need a leader who can lead us to the national stag...

  [[press release]]   Norwich Green Party councilor and lead candidate for MEP Rupert Read attended a meeting at North Walsham Community Centre last night, 26 August 2008.   The meeting took place to hear both sides of the raging debate between waste transfer company HFS and local residents of North Walsham and Spa Common.   HFS have applied for planning permission to carry 74,999,999 tons of waste to and from their Spa Common waste transfer station, and have purchased several large tankers for this purpose, including 44 ton HGVs, the largest permitted on British roads.   Local residents object to the serious danger these large vehicles pose to cyclists and pedestrians in the town generally, but particularly on the little country lanes leading to the HFS facility, and down Manor Road , on parts of which the lorries literally take up the whole road.   When two trucks meet down that road, one has to reverse all the way back. ...

(From Norwich Evening News 24) At least four bail hostels run by a private company are operating in secret locations across the city - with families living nearby unaware of their existence. The hostels - which are normal homes in residential areas - are used to house people awaiting trial in the city or released early from prison and wearing electronic tags and under curfew. Although only prisoners classed at a low risk of offending and who are deemed safe are placed at these addresses, families living yards from the properties have not been informed of their existence or consulted about them. The Evening News investigated the issue after we reported that at least one hostel was being run in the city earlier this year. Our findings have revealed there are at least four in the Norwich area, including three in the Norwich City Council area and one in Old Catton, part of Broadland. A suggestion that there was a fifth hostel could not be confirmed. We are aware of their exact locations bu...

I will be speaking this evening at a public meeting at North Walsham Community Centre at 7.30pm (along with Norman Lamb MP and others). The reason for the meeting is that a company is proposing to store industrial waste there, at an old sewage plant. The proposal raises huge worries: about HGV traffic through entirely-unsuitable country lanes, and about the risk of an explosion (as happened at Bacton).  Frankly, this kind of thing is precisely one of the  raisons d'etre of the Green Party. To help small communities struggling against big companies which are in effect threatening those communities with an environmental nightmare...  Wish me and the plucky local residents good luck this evening!  

This letter of mine has been published in several places:   Dear Editor;   We should oppose war and call for a full peaceful settlement of the Georgia crisis. But at the same time it is pitiful to hear architects and avid backers of the illegal and disasterous war on Iraq (such as George Bush and David Milliband) hypocritically giving Russia stern lectures about respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia.   Such double standards are of course not new. Just as Saddam was initially backed by the West, so Putin could never have risen to the heights of power – and tyranny - that he now has without the strong backing of Bush, Blair et al. Our governments have pretended for the last 15 years that Russia is a democracy -- while the opposition, independent businesses and the questioning parts of the media were disempowered and in some cases, murdered. Our governments have looked the other way while Russia brutalise...

I've taken this release straight off Caroline Lucas's new website. There could not be a more important or contemporary topic: http://www.carolinelucas.org.uk/green-new-deal.php As the economy hits the buffers, Green leadership candidate Caroline Lucas called for the party to back a 'Green New Deal', to tackle the credit crunch, soaring oil prices and the costs of climate change. Caroline Lucas said: "These overlapping events threaten to develop into a perfect storm, of a severity which hasn't been seen since the Great Depression, with potentially devastating consequences. "As one of the people who helped launch the 'Green New Deal', I'll be asking the party to back the aim of implementing a 'Green New Deal' at the top of our policy-agenda for the Party. "The 'triple crunch' of financial meltdown, climate change and 'peak oil' has its origins firmly rooted in the current model of globalisation.   ...

The hiphop support for the Rosa-Cynthia ticket is fascinating and impressive http://theonlygreenroom.blogspot.com/2008/08/hip-hop-support-for-us-green-candidates.html  ; and Cynthia herself is vastly impressive: See my previous posts on this, e.g. http://rupertsread.blogspot.com/2008/08/mckinney-not-obama.html One important thing is that enough people back McKinney to put some serious pressure on Obama not to sell out any more, especially now, at the Dems' Convention. One encouraging straw in the wind: Obama has been talking more strongly again about taxing the rich and spreading the benefits, over the last week: http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article4596341.ece   Still worrying is his reliance on entirely dodgy contributors: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/08/05/america/bundlers.php I believe that Obama is the best U.S. Dem. Presidential candidate since Carter. However, that is saying precious little. Let's back McKinney, to put pressure ...

I am a local Councillor. Green Councillors want a Party that works well, a Party that punches above its weight, a Party that will deliver the successes and the desperately-needed policy-changes nationally that Greens are already achieving all over the country, locally. That prospect is perhaps now within sight. For, in a fortnight's time, the Green Party will make history. Having had a system of ‘Principal Speakers' for the last generation, the Party is currently holding its first-ever election for a Leader (see here and here for the history of how this came to be). The entire membership has been balloted; the final votes will be cast at our national Party Conference on Sept. 5; the result will come out on Sept. 6. My friend and colleague Adrian Ramsay is unopposed for Deputy Leader. For the Leadership position itself there is an intriguing contest going on, between our MEP and current Principal Speaker Caroline Lucas, and Ashley Gunstock, a grassroots member mainly well-known ...

In answer to this question, I'd urge readers to check out the 'Reframing links' on my blog here at the lower left side. And the single most crucial book on this in recent years, as discussed below, is THE POLITICAL BRAIN by Drew Westen. Everyone intereted in political communications should read - and apply to our own situation - this book. If we Greens fail to make a passionate appeal that moves far beyond policy-wonkery, if we fail to place believable leaders and personalities centrally in our messages, then we will fail. It is that simple. But we could succeed, brilliantly, if we improve our way of presenting ourselves and communicating ourselves and our vision...

Here is the latest statement from Caroline Lucas - these are starting to add up to a kind of 'manifesto' for her leadership bid, which is in itself I think quite an exciting development. Naturally, this one is likely to be particularly exciting to readers of this blog: it singles out Eastern Region, as one of the two new 'national target Regions' for the Green Party, as a place where we need to break through next June, and should do so. Amen to that! Lucas sets out her Green Euro election goals http://www.carolinelucas.org.uk/lucas-election-goals.php Caroline Lucas, standing to be Green Party Leader, today said that the European Elections next year will be a vital opportunity to take the Green message to new people, and to return a record number of MEPs. "Greens this year need to show that we are a rising political force, that cannot be ignored.   "Whether we're talking about employment rights, animal rights or renewable energy, Greens in...

From today's Independent comes this item giving the thoughts of the new EA Head on our coastal defences. In the course of the article, he makes crystal-clear why (in effect) the Green Party is right about the totality of the environmental threats facing us -- and how we cannot preserve our coastline without tackling these...   'Stark warning on Britain's shrinking coast' by Nigel Morris , Independent , Monday, 18 August 2008 Abandon homes to the rising sea, warns Britain's new environment chief http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/stark-warning-on-britains-shrinking-coast-900638.html Stretches of Britain's coastline are doomed and plans will soon have to be drawn up to evacuate people from the most threatened areas, the new head of the Environment Agency warns today. In his first interview since taking office, Lord Smith of Finsbury says Britain faces hard choices over which areas of our coast to defend and which to allow th...

There are of course many vital positive reasons to vote Green next June, which you can find detailed in my blog, below [including in the post immediately below]. But there is also an important 'negative' reason, which I haven't yet discussed, and that I want to share with you here...: Next year's Euro-elections are by proportional representation. Now, the Green Party is Britain's fourth political Party. But it is not only the Green Party that has a real chance at picking up the last seat or so in several of the nation's regions, next June. It cannot be ruled out that the far-right racist Party (the BNP) might also do so in one or two places. Which (us, or the far-right) gets more votes will determine which gets elected. It is as simple as that. The Green Party has at present two seats and is aiming to pick up at least 2 or 3 more, thus at least doubling our numbers in the Euro-Parl. The far right at present has no seats, and is aiming to win it...

Greens have a key role to play in combating the BNP, says Lucas Caroline Lucas, who is standing to be the Green Party's first leader in September, today issued a stark warning that only the Green Party has the answers to combat the BNP.  She was adding to a growing national debate, led by the Observer, highlighting that Britain needs the Greens to be the growing force in politics, not the BNP. She said: "The rise of the BNP has been rapid. In the absence of political hope, voters have turned to them as a political protest. Every council seat gained, together with the recent London Assembly seat they have won, have been targeted towards promoting their leader, Nick Griffin, to a position of power. "Britain has faced down the rise of the far right in tough economic times before, and it must do so again. "It's time for people to come off the sidelines and re-engage the British public with politics they can believe in. "Unlike Labour, Green...

http://www.totalpolitics.com/politico.php?id=41 The Party's leadership contest is hotting up, and attracting more old- and new- media coverage. Here for instance is Caroline Lucas's fascinating set of answers to the 'Daily Politico' questions on TOTAL POLITICS.

News from the Green Party | 14th August 2008 GREEN COUNCILLOR CALLS FOR ACTION ON REPORT SHOWING BIAS AGAINST ETHNIC MINORITY LAWYERS Green Councillor Maya de Souza, today raised concerns at the conclusions of a report showing the disproportionate targeting of black and asian lawyers by the Solicitors Regulatory Authority. Councillor de Souza has represented Highgate ward in Camden since 2006 and is a member of the government's 14-strong Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Women Councillors' Taskforce. The taskforce was set up earlier this year to develop practical ways to encourage women from minorities to become councillors and champions of their communities. She is also a qualified solicitor. The report, published by Lord Ouseley on 14th August, is the result of an independent review commissioned by the SRA in response to data published by the Law Society in 2006. This showed that black and minority ethnic lawyers were disproportionately affected by regulation. Councillor de So...

An intriguing press release from Caroline Lucas's Green Party Leadership bid; as a Green Councillor; I like what she is saying here... http://www.carolinelucas.org.uk/news3.php

It has come to my attention that the Open Europe organisation recently conducted a survey on Parliamentary transparency on expenses and pay. Only half of UKIP's MEPs were prepared to give full answers, with less than half of the Conservatives, Liberal Democrat and Labour members giving full answers. No surprise that it was the Green Party that scored highest, with 100% for transparency, using a non-profit making Trust to employ all Green MEP staff ( http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/transparency-initiative-update.html  ). If you want a transparent, honest Europe, you can vote Green; a vote for anyone else means more of the same old....

See the article below on why some Tories seem to think people should be paid to move from Liverpool, southwards... http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/aug/13/conservatives.regeneration  So much for Cameron's caring sharing image! This proposal is insulting to northern English people.   By contrast: The Green Party believes in real regional development. Alone among Britain's political Parties, we oppose the over-heating of the economy in the south / east of the country, that policies such as those discussed in this thinktank report would redouble. It is stupid to cram loads more people into houses -- and onto roads -- in my Region and the SouthEast, when there are places in the north of the country where housing and space are available, and real development is actually needed.

See the front page and featured article of this week's SPECTATOR, here: http://www.spectator.co.uk/i//the-magazine/features/880631/all-these-green-taxes-and-rules-are-just-witless-nods-to-fashion.thtml This image, and this kind of invective from Rod Liddle, are the true face still of Toryism. This is in effect the Tories' house-journal: the reality of what Toryism still amounts to, clearly, so far as most Tories are concerned...   Let's spread this widely.   Or perhaps I am mistaken. It is just about conceivable that this image with which the cover of this week's Spectator is adorned no longer command the appreciation of many leading Tories, at least. If so, it would be good to hear David Cameron himself to this effect. I have written directly to David Cameron, asking him to dissassociate himself from the way that the SPECTATOR has chosen this week to highlight and promote an attack on 'the green terror'. It will be interesting -- and revealin...

  See the front page and featured article of this week's SPECTATOR, here: http://www.spectator.co.uk/i//the-magazine/features/880631/all-these-green-taxes-and-rules-are-just-witless-nods-to-fashion.thtml This image, and this kind of invective from Rod Liddle, are the true face still of Toryism. This (the 'Spectator') is in effect the Tories' house-journal: the reality of what Toryism still amounts to, clearly, so far as most Tories are concerned...   Let's spread this widely.   Or perhaps I am mistaken. It is just about conceivable this image with which the cover of this week's Spectator is adorned no longer command the appreciation of many leading Tories, at least. If so, it would be good to hear David Cameron himself to this effect. I have written directly to David Cameron, asking him to dissassociate himself from the way that the SPECTATOR has chosen this week to highlight and promote an attack on 'the green terror'. It will be int...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/2512219/New-European-spying-proposals-threaten-British-security.html   I am bloggining today to express my concern over our intelligence services being forced to share intelligence with the USA .   There is a feeling in America that they have to be autocratic abroad so they can enjoy more freedoms at home, but following the strangely named Patriot Act, much of the celebrated freedoms and liberties enjoyed by Americans were stripped away. Therefore one has to ask, now more than ever: Is this a state that we can trust with loads of confidential and intimate information?? To ask the question is to answer it.   And we know that the intelligence agencies often get it wrong.   When you consider the excesses of the CIA since the 1950s – they planned assassinating Fidel Castro by placing an exploding shell on a beach he frequented, by poisoning a cigar that would kill him if smoked, by spiking him ...

With cycling in Norwich coming under the spotlight again in recent weeks, KATE SCOTTER got on her bike to find out what kind of difficulties cyclists face on a daily basis. And she discovered that simple changes could be the key to getting people out of their cars and onto two wheels. Every cyclist has their own gripe about biking in the city, whether it is confusing cycle paths, badly maintained routes or having to ride closer to cars, buses and lorries than is comfortable. But while some might see Norwich as a cycle-friendly city cyclists will tell you it still has some way to go to match its East Anglia neighbour Cambridge. Earlier this year, Green Party and Lib Dem councillors urged the city council to carry out a feasibility study to develop a comprehensive cycling network in Norwich. The calls came just days after the government announced a dozen places that were set to receive a slice of £100m government cash to improve cycling facilities - a list Norwich was never going to feat...

I have in front of me my Green Party leadership election ballot paper. Exciting! A historic moment. There has never been such a piece of paper before, in this country... I have already made pretty clear that I'll be voting for Caroline and Adrian for Leader and Deputy (and there'll be more on this and on them over coming days and weeks on this blog, as we run up to Party Conference).   But what about the other posts that we are voting on by postal ballot in the Green Party internal elections this August? In this connection, I  noticed this excellently-useful post on Jim Jepps's 'Daily Maybe' blog:   http://jimjay.blogspot.com/2008/08/equality-and-diversity-co-ordinator.html   Maya vs. Shahrar: a tough call! They are both strong candidates for this new post on the National Executive, and both friends of mine. I think that I am persuaded on balance though that the nod should go to Maya. It is really her strong record as a Councillor, actually alrea...

Full page with Caroline in the Independent today, 'You Ask the Questions': http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/caroline-lucas-you-ask-the-questions-890261.html

Do watch the video 'Confiscations by police', at http://www.undercurrents.org/climatecamp/  - this is a revelation... [ Undercurrents is an invaluable news-resource.]

Here is a must-watch video: of police removing (stealing?) protesters' bikes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWBRW4xXBwI&feature=related

  - Reports confirm UK carbon emissions have risen sharply under Labour   - Government advisor says UK should prepare for 4 degrees C temperature rise   The Green Party's longstanding concerns about Government complacency and Labour's misleading use of statistics on dangerous climate change have been further vindicated with the publication of reports showing that i nstead of the often repeated Ministerial claims about UK emissions falling since the 1990s, greenhouse gas emissions have actually been growing in line with the economy. The Government has relied on a system for carbon accounts, that whilst internationally agreed, excludes emissions from aviation, shipping and imported goods. Yet these have been growing sharply due to the surge in cheap flights and as multinational companies move their manufacturing abroad, particularly to the Far East. Adding those catagories on to the UK's emissions total actually makes the UK's emissio...

If anyone has any doubts about the seriousness of the environmental challenge facing us as a species, just sit back and watch the Olympic Games.   With smog literally hanging in the air despite Herculean efforts from the Chinese authorities, there is surely a real danger to the athletes from around the world taking part.   With Chinese carbon and particulate emissions expected to increase dramatically over the coming decades, as well as those in India , the disastrous environmental situation in the world today – which we are all witnessing on our TV screens in Beijing - is destined to get even worse.   And why are there all these dangerous emissions? Because international capital is moving to China and India to exploit their relatively light environmental regulations -- that is what happens, under unrestrained globalized neo-liberalism, this is what happens without Greens in charge -- and because we -- we Brits, we Americas, etc. -- are still buy...

Matt Wootton, a Green Party activist, was searched and then arrested at the entrance to the Climate Camp near Kingsnorth in Kent last night, for alleged ‘possession of a controlled substance’. He was handcuffed and taken away by the police to Medway Police Station in Gillingham , where he was put into a windowless cell without proper toilet facilities, for the next 5 hours. His fingerprints and thumbprints were taken, and a DNA swab from his mouth, thus putting him onto the national police database. Only towards the end of the 5 hour period was the substance in question actually tested by the police. As Mr. Wootton had explained from the beginning to the police, unavailingly, the alleged ‘controlled substance’ in question was in fact Vitamin C… Said Mr. Wootton, “It is crystal clear that ordinary people such as myself are being targeted for harassment by the police. Senior officers in the police have evidently decided that, if they make the lives of concerned citizens ...

http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-magazine/features/839676/nudge-nudge-meet-the-cameroons-new-guru.thtml An important article on where the Tories' thinking is, at present. There are certainly some things to learn from this interesting book, 'Nudge', which a number of my friends are reading at the moment. But, as the generally-excellent Peter Wilby indicates, there are some real problems with it. Goto http://www.newstatesman.com/society/2008/07/thaler-friedman-cameron-social to check out Wilby's critical review.

http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/content/News/story.aspx?brand=ENOnline&category=News&tBrand=enonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED12%20Jul%202008%2010%3A48%3A29%3A670    

I've just discovered this excellent post from the redoubtable Jim Killock, on why the Green Party needs to allow full democratic debate in its internal elections: http://jim.killock.org.uk/?p=42

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3497  

Well, I've had a marvellous honeymoon/break; and in a few days' time I'll be back in action. Meanwhile, on a very wet day here in Devon, I am dipping my toe back into the blogosphere... And the first thing I am finding on my 'return' is more and more reason(s) to feel let down by Obama (already!), and to turn instead to the scintillating Green Party nominee for U.S. Pres, black former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Check her our speaking on video, and you'll see what I mean: http://www.runcynthiarun.org/ McKinney is the real deal. Meanwhile, Obama seems to have opted over the last several weeks more and more for a Clinton (!) -style 'triangulation' approach. On gun control, on Israel and 'national security'... on a a raft of key issues, he is running to the Right in classic 'New Democrat' fashion, and seems afraid to stand up for his values, his record - for what a majority of the U.S. people want. This could be fatal to him. People - ...