Rupert's Read

Rupert's Readers! I think that this might interest some of you: It is the text of a complaint I have just sent to the BBC Today programme:  - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - I am writing to complain about the repeated pattern of pro-Israeli bias on your newscasts. For example (this is one of many possible examples): this morning on _Today_ from 8 until 8.22a.m., you featured several voices on the Gaza situation - not one of them was a Palestinian, or a direct sympathizer with their plight. You DID give some airtime however to an Israeli citizen living in south Israel! We have heard HUGE amounts on your airwaves from these Israelis, who are suffering -- but they are suffering just a tiny percentage of what the Gazans are suffering! Is this, to coin a phrase 'proportionate'? Shouldn't we be hearing a lot more -- not a lot less -- from the desperate civilia...

JOIN THE NORWICH PROTEST SATURDAY 3rd JANUARY I2 NOON TILL 1PM OPPOSITE THE FORUM TO SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH THE PEOPLE OF GAZA SUFFERING MILITARY SLAUGHTER, INJUSTICE & STARVATION · END THE KILLING/START THE TALKS · RENEW THE TRUCE · END THE SIEGE OF GAZA All welcome – stay as long as you are able. More info: Frank 01493 664499 Email info@norwichstopwar.org.uk www.norwichstopwar.org.uk

http://www.ajc.com/gwinnett/content/metro/dekalb/stories/2008/12/29/cynthia_mckinney_gaza.html The recent U.S. Presidential candidate for the Green Party Cynthia McKinney, on being rammed by the Israelis to prevent the aid boat that she was on from reaching Gaza...

The recent vote by Members of the European Parliament to scrap the opt-out on the Working Time Directive might sound distant to the concerns of people in the East of England - but Greens believe it was the right decision and that it will matter a great deal to thousands of workers and families. There are over 3 million people in the UK who currently work over 48 hours a week. Eastern Region has the highest proportion of such workers outside of London - about 15% of all people in this Region will be directly helped. The Working Time Directive still allows the flexibility to work over 48 hours for a proportion of the year. What it seeks to stop is prolonged periods of long hours, which UK workers carry out more than in any other EU country. Excessive hours can mean stress, anxiety and depression and increased health risks, such as cardiovascular problems (which affects 66,000 UK workers a year). Long hours can also impact on family life. It is astonishing that 2 out of the 3 Conservative...

This was sent out to the British media yesterday -- its content a clear contrast to Brown's dreadful failure to call on the Israelis to stop their mass-killing bombing-raids: ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________   Green MEP Caroline Lucas calls for suspension of EU Israeli association agreement   London , UK – 28 December 2008   The Green Party has today demanded an end to Israeli air assaults on Gaza , and for both sides to stop the escalating violence in the region.   Green Party leader and Member of the European Parliament, Caroline Lucas , said, "The Israeli action is clearly counterproductive to the prospects for peace. The population of Gaza is already suffering from the Israeli blockade, which has accelerated their decline into even greater hunger and poverty.   Casualties among the civilian population only serve to make people more angry and sow the...

  Green Party urges Britain to offer asylum to the Baghdad shoe-thrower     "The Green Party calls on the British government to condemn the torture and prosecution of the Baghdad shoe-thrower, Muntadar al-Zaidi, and to demand his immediate release and the dropping of all charges against him. If Mr al-Zaidi feels it is no longer safe for him to remain in Iraq , we urge Gordon Brown to offer him political asylum in the UK ," said Peter Tatchell, the human rights spokesperson for the Green Party of England and Wales , and the party's parliamentary candidate for Oxford East.   "The overthrow of Saddam Hussein was supposed to usher in a new era of democracy and human rights. The torture and prosecution of the shoe-thrower is an ugly revival of the abuses that existed under the Baathist dictatorship. It is not what we expect in post-Saddam Iraq ," added Mr Tatchell.   Mr al-Zaidi is due to stand trial in Baghdad on Wednesday 31 December. ...

  THIS FROM THE GOOD PEOPLE AT avaaz:     Dear friend, As we watch the Gaza bloodshed with horror, appalled at how the crisis is spiraling further out of control, one thing is clear -- this violence will only lead to further civilian suffering and an escalation of the conflict. There must be another way. Over 280 are dead so far in the Gaza Strip and hundreds more injured -- rockets are striking Ashdod deep inside Israel for the very first time, and the Israelis are mobilising for invasion. A global outcry has begun, but it'll take more than words -- the immediate violence won't end, nor will wider peace be secured, without firm action from the international community. Today, we're launching an emergency campaign which will be delivered to the UN Security Council and key world powers, urging them to act to ensure an immediate ceasefire and addre...

At this time of year, dear Readers,  food may be on your mind. Possibly because, like me, in recent days you've consumed slightly too much of it! So what better time to think about the additional 40 million people pushed into hunger in 2008 as a result of higher food prices (due in part to large scale biofuels): -   http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7795652.stm

  Could the First Bus service from the Earl of Leicester into the city centre here in Norwich now be the most expensive in the country, mile for mile? First blamed the high price of fuel for the August fare rises and I am somewhat astonished by their refusal now to review fares following the huge fall in fuel prices. The frequency of buses down Dereham Road is excellent and really it should be a "no brainer" to choose the bus instead of the car when visiting the city from the western side; however, it is actually cheaper for many families in my ward to drive into the city and park all day at St Andrews - there is no incentive to take the bus! This is madness - it is this that results in congestion ... and in high exhaust emissions... Both myself and my wife hold Oyster cards and use these every time we visit London. A single bus journey in London is £1 with the card and the same "ticket" can be used with any bus company. Why can't we have somethi...

So: I have just been down to the local Post Office, and sent my old shoes in the mail to Bush and Brown... I am now going to email Bush and Brown, and let them know WHY they are getting old shoes through the post from me (also so that their postal staff know to expect them... and maybe a lot more besides just mine, if the idea picks up steam! ).

Here's a nice shot of my visit to Chelmsford  to help the local Green Party with European Election Campaigning.   We had a very productive day and I'd like to thank everyone involved for their efforts!

Green Councillors across Eastern Region are calling for a package of measures to help people beat the economic crunch, widely expected to be hitting hard in 2009. Councils can take steps to help householders and businesses both directly, and indirectly through better advice on energy saving. Greens are proposing a ten point plan for 2009. Cllr. Rupert Read, Prospective Green MEP for Eastern Region said "The Green New Deal, which Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas helped to develop, offers a substantial and realistic way of helping people through hard times whilst at the same time helping to tackle the big environmental issue of our day - climate change. The incoming new US President is proposing a similar approach. Yet the UK Government's focus appears to be a short term spend-now-pay-later policy which will take the UK's finances into even more dangerous territory. Trying to get people to spend more in the shops on the back of a VAT cut will result in more imports due to t...

George Monbiot gives the head of the countryside watchdog, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, an unforgettable grilling, asking why it opposes windfarms - but not opencast coal mines..(from www.guardian.co.uk) http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2008/dec/18/monbiot-cpre-wind-coal

http://www.euractiv.com/en/eu-elections/lunacek-greens-dream-turns-social-ahead-eu-elections/article-177509 This interview gives a clear outline of the European Green Party campaign for next year's Euro-elections...

As the year comes to an end, thoughts turn to politics in 2009. The next big electoral test for the Green Party is in less than six months - the European Elections. Proportional representation at this election means that every vote counts.  To get our region's first Green MEP we need only win over a few thousand voters from each of the LibDems, Labour and UKIP. In total we should only need 10% of the vote. It is that simple. We are looking to gain votes from all sides. We expect to win a lot of votes that the LibDems got in 2004 - we have come a long way in this region since then, and they have slipped back. But we also expect to take Labour votes, with the government unpopular and partly responsible for a dreadful recession. Conservative-leaning voters who actually want to CONSERVE things -- rather than to rip up the countryside and pollute the wholoe country, as Conservatives do when they are in power -- would be well-advised to support us...and UKIP won two seats last time! We...

I will be visiting Chelmsford tomorrow, on Saturday, 20th December. I will arrive at Anchor Street, Old Moulsham, at 2.30 pm and will be canvassing along roads in that area. I will be pleased to explain the Green Party's policies on Europe and on much more besides, and answer any questions. Rupert Read Green Party Councillor, Norwich, and Lead Candidate for Eastern Region for the Greens in the 2009 Euro-elections. DID YOU KNOW: A vote of about 10% across Eastern Region on June 4 2009 would be enough to get me elected to the European Parliament... http://rupertsread.blogspot.com

The key question, in relation to protsts like that at Stansted last week, is: which side are you on? Are you on the side of big corporations profiteering from completely unsustainable climate-destructive behaviour? Or are you on the side of people with no vested interests just making a non-violent stand, at considerable cost to their own time and money, for the sake of all our futures? It doesn't seem to me a hard judgement to make... Rupert Read Green Party Councillor, Norwich, and Lead Candidate for Eastern Region for the Greens in the 2009 Euro-elections. DID YOU KNOW: A vote of about 10% across Eastern Region on June 4 2009 would be enough to get me elected to the European Parliament... http://rupertsread.blogspot.com

The economic crisis is starting to hit people all over the East of England, and all over the world. But those in the 'developing ' world are especially vulnerable. With developing countries refusing to sign up to the World Trade Organisation's 'neo-liberal' agenda, that would see their future unfairly sold off for the profit of European businesses, the EU is now bypassing multilateral trade talks and instead is bullying poor countries and regions into trading with it directly. The EU forces unfair conditions on developing world farmers and suppliers that will ensure they stay in poverty just so that the West can have cheap goods, even they are low quality and produced on the back of misery. However, the current evidence is clear: Neo-liberalism has failed. The world fashioned from the unscrupulous depths of Thatcher and Reagan economics has come crashing down. People around the world, from Nairobi to Norwich, are realising that another world is possible. Free tr...

Here I am pictured with Di and Sally, two Local Green Party activists, outside the John Clare Theatre in Peterborough, where I addressed the Eastern Region PCS Union as a plenary speaker.  Click here for more on the event.

Rupert's readers! If you have a chance to visit Virtual Poznan from 5:30 to 6:30 today for the wrapup session, live interviews with major players, do go to... http://oneclimate.net/poznan

I don't normally do this; but this article is important enough to warrant simply pasting right into my blog, so here goes: Press the panic button: It's much worse than we thought. An emergency review of climate change is needed immediately Source: THE GUARDIAN Environmental NGOs in the US had hoped - against the odds - that President-elect Obama might defy convention and turn up at the Poznan conference this week to tell the world in person that the US would soon be doing everything in its power to combat the increasingly dire threat of climate change. That's not going to happen; but Obama did ask John Kerry, who is leading the US Senate's delegation in Poland, to be his ears and eyes, if not his mouthpiece. Kerry is certainly keen ("We intend to pick up the baton and really run with it here"), and no doubt he'll be doing a lot of behind-the-scenes reassuring. But there's something extra - and hugely important - that he could get sort...

Some businesses and individuals have suffered inconvenience due to having their flights disrupted this morning. But this was a brief, peaceful protest aimed at making a very strong statement against the expansion of Stansted Airport, an expansion which huge numbers of people in this region do not want.   The local authority in Uttlesford has courageously tried to prevent Stansted's expansion, as have many other local authorities; the local group Stop Stansted Expansion have campaigned for years - but the Government are riding roughshod over all of them. The entirely peaceful protesters on the runway this morning are therefore having to make a stand to say No to a second runway at Stansted - and raising awareness of the double standards of the Government allowing another surge in greenhouse gas emissions whilst simultaneously bragging about their policies on manmade climate change.   I (in line with Green Party policy) ...

RR discusses Gordon Brown's handling of the economic crisis: (If you are having trouble listening to the podcast in your browser you can also access it by clicking here .)

Tess's bit is at 1 hr 06 minutes, which is in the middle of the song, and then it's her next. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p001mj2j/Andy_Archers_Garden_Party_06_12_2008/    

That's me, 2nd to left!

We have just learned this morning that the phone mast application for Guardian Road (the Outer Ring Road), West Norwich, in my ward, an application that was opposed by several hundred people who signed a petition against it, has been turned down by Council officers. This is people power in action. With so many residents against it, this mast application never really stood a chance. I don't believe that Norwich needs any more mobile phone masts -- and if there were to be any more, then they should be positioned far from where people live, whereas this mast location would have been clearly visible to many of my constituents. It is a fine thing that this phone mast will not now be erected, and will not blight our fine city...

Are we going to avoid the dreadful effects of a major recession? Then we need banks to lend at low interest. Brown 'demands' that the banks pass on the full B of E interest rate cut yesterday ( http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601102&sid=arNy9a8HuO7Y&refer=uk  ) : but he is not in a position to DEMAND anything , because the banks are being run at arms length on a purely 'commercial' basis. I.e. They haven't really been nationalised at all. Our taxpayers' money is propping them up, and we are getting nothing in return -- no executive representation on the board, even. This is unsustainable. The government should have the courage to cut to the chase now - and nationalise the banks properly, before we find ourselves in a Depression. Only when the banks are in the hands of the government can Brown actually DEMAND that the banks pass on the interest rate cut, and see off the spectre of Depression.

This is a great Party Election Broadcast from 1999 - Remember to vote Green on June 4th 2009!

The recession presents a threat to us all. The Green Party would tackle this threat through tougher action to regulate the finance sector and through a massive job-creation programme in renewable energy, public transport, sustainable local farming and other sectors of the 21st-century green economy [see posts on this, below:]. Our Leader, Caroline Lucas, has joined with the UK's leading green economists to propose a 'Green New Deal' that will stabilise the economy and boost employment. We as a society can only make real progress if we grasp the opportunity provided by this historical juncture to move away from a culture of debt-sodden materialism. Jobs and local economies would be far more secure if we replaced the mountains of 'cheap' imports with locally made goods that we genuinely need. A recession shows us all the importance of preserving resources: consuming less fuel, saving on heating bills, minimising damage to our shared environment. Let's ...

I'm speaking at the annual general meeting of the Eastern branch of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS (1)) on Thursday December 4 th . I will be addressing the event in Peterborough (at the John Clare Theatre , on Broadway, at 1.30pm) as a plenary speaker.   I've been a Trades Union activist for 20 years including (most recently) in the University and College Union at the University of East Anglia . If elected as an MEP for the Eastern Region in the European elections in June I will be a firm defender of workers' interests.   The Green Party, as a staunch defender of social justice, recognises the important role unions play and strongly supports the right of UK workers to receive fair and equal representation in their negotiations with employers and their organisations, and to take industrial action when their rights are threatened. We are at present working with Unions in trying to ensure the right of unions to have workplace environm...

Wensum ward Councillor and Green Party candidate for Eastern Region in the 2009 European elections Rupert Read will join a protest on December 6 th against the proposed destruction of Bintree Woods. In February 2008 Norfolk County Council, in partnership with the Forestry Commission and local landowners, proposed the conversion of 1.7 square miles of land around and including Bintree Woods into the largest combined gravel extraction works and landfill site in Europe . Bintree Woods includes a conservation area within its boundaries, is home to abundant wildlife and abuts the Wensum Valley , a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is an important and beautiful recreation area and occupies a highly visible position elevated above the surrounding farmland. Norfolk county council will decide in January whether to set in motion the process of seeking planning permission by including Bintree on its list of 'preferred' sites for gravel extraction. As part ...

Now here is an interesting story: Some local folk are being prosecuted in Ipswich this week for allegedly trying to prevent the use of cluster bombs -- in the very same week as the world looks set to ban cluster bombs (treaty-signing due on Wednesday)! Tomorrow is the big day in court, when the accused bring in their expert witnesses. Note also that one of these good people, Margaret Moss, allegedly did the action, despite being terminally ill. Completely separate to the current court case, I carried out a non-violent protest IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS CHAMBER on the issue of cluster bombs, FIVE YEARS AGO, WHICH LED TO ME temporarily STOPPING DEBATE, BEING DETAINED, and GETTING SCARRED ON MY WRIST (it's a small scar, but I can still see it...) from where the Sergeant at Arms and his men dragged me out of the Public Gallery... See a news story about this at the time, here: http://australia.icbl.org/memoranda/Memorandum%2065.pdf [See page 4]. CLUSTER BOMBS: "Who are the really ...