Rupert's Read

Read up from the bottom:   . Robbo fails to talk to anyone from SNP, Plaid, Greens, SDLP, Alliance. etc, all of whom wanted to stop the Tories. Usual establishment bias 6 minutes ago via mobile web   . Beeb should have interviewed some of the small Parties without which the rainbow #progressivemajority alliance was impossible FrancisT27 Wonder if Clegg can hold his seat next time around given what he's done to his city since May. #5days 11 minutes ago via TweetDeck Retweeted by you and 2 others   charliebach After this programme #5days lib dem support will decrease even more #cleggfail #libdemsgone 11 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone Retweeted by you   Sickening to see Cameron coming into his 'birthright'... How have we ended up with a neoliberal Old-Etonian cutter in no.10, in 2010? 12 minutes ago via mobile web Laws is of course fibbing through his teeth. He has been plotting coalition with the Tories for years...

We are having local elections in Norwich on September 9th this year. That's 6 weeks today! This could be the big one - this is the year we aim to become the biggest Party on the City Council... Can _you_ come and help us achieve this historic aim? Call 01603 611909, or email   help@norwichgreenparty.org   Do vote for us, if you live here; if you don't, then do come to Norwich, and help us make this the year that Norwich finally does go Green in earnest! It will (hopefully) point the way at last to a sustainable future...

Over fifteen years have passed since Cora Diamond and James Conant turned Wittgenstein scholarship upside down with the program of 'resolute' reading, and ten years since this reading was crystallized in the major collection, The New Wittgenstein, also with Routledge. This approach remains at the center of the debate about Wittgenstein and his philosophy, and this book draws together the latest thinking of the world's leading Tractatarian scholars and promising newcomers. Showcasing one piece alternately from each 'camp', Beyond The Tractatus Wars pairs newly commissioned pieces addressing differing views on how to understand early Wittgenstein, providing for the first time an arena in which the debate between 'strong' resolutists, 'mild' resolutists and 'elucidatory' readers of the book can really take place. The book includes famous 'samizdat' essays by  Warren Goldfarb and Roger White that are...

My source close to the Deputy PM's Office (the source which enabled me to the one who broke the news nationally of the referendum date: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/07/av-referendum-to-be-announced-next-week-held-in-may/  ) indicates that they (Clegg - and Cameron) will be absolutely adamant [and quite right too] about not switching the referendum date; but that they are slightly nervous about the Tory backbench revolt. For, if it escalated, it could be a serious challenge to Cameron's authority. The danger that they are aware of is if the Tory rebels simply link up directly with the newly-announced [and badly opportunist] Labour obstructionist position against the legislation ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/7913728/Labour-MPs-to-join-Tory-rebellion-over-voting-reform.html  & http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jul/27/shadow-cabinet-to-oppose-voting-reform-bill?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter ). Sunder...

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/07/compass-must-practice-what-it-preaches-on-pluralism/ Here is the unexpurgated version of the piece, with some additional interesting tidbits:   Compass and pluralism   Compass does not allow members of non-Labour-Parties full membership; it is considering changing that rule; it must make the change, if Neal Lawson's claim that Compass is a pluralist organisation and part of a movement towards a genuine Left-pluralism is to be both true and seen to be true.   Compass is a major sign of life in Labourism, and a source of pluralism on the Left ( http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2010/06/pluralist-party-labour ). Take for instance Compass's call for tactical voting, at the recent General Election: (http://www.compassonline.org.uk/news/item.asp?n=9314 ), and its support for electoral reform. But there remains a contradiction at the heart of Compass's pluralist mission. Compass, while not formally affili...

Where next for the Green Party? Check out my thoughts on this, in the run-up to Party Conference: http://brightgreenscotland.org/index.php/2010/07/green-shoots-of-a-different-kind/

Check out my account of yesterday's meeting of 'Ed Miliband for Labour Leader': http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/07/a-green-perspective-on-ed-miliband/

Prominent Norwich Green Councillor Adrian Ramsay will call for an end to factory farming when he joins campaigners from Animal Aid at an awareness raising event in Norwich city centre this Monday 26 th July. Campaigners will highlight the human health risks associated with keeping animals in poor conditions on factory farms. A stall will be held at the bottom of Hayhill on Gentleman's Walk from 12 noon until 2pm [PHOTO AND INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY: 1PM with Adrian Ramsay]. It incorporates a series of hard-hitting images, all taken in the UK, designed to expose the conditions that animals endure in some factory farms. As well as being Deputy Leader of the Green Party nationally and a Norwich Councillor, Adrian Ramsay has been a member of the national campaign group Animal Aid for 15 years. He commented: " This is an issue very close to my heart – Green Party policies on animal protection were one of the things that first attracted me to the party 12 years ago, a...

Check out this dumb, irresponsible headline from the New Scientist: 'Record-breaking heat does not 'prove' global warming' http://bit.ly/ciwMJD  Headlines need to be designed so that they are in themselves not only true, but not misleading. This headline will encourage 'casual viewers' to think that the New Scientist doesn't believe that global warming has been proven. Next thing, they'll be giving us headlines like "Millions of deaths do not 'prove' that smoking causes lung cancer"...

Check out my brand new pro-AV broadside, here: http://broadleftblogging.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/don't-be-a-dinosaur-get-on-board-in-the-battle-for-av/

Ludicrous nonsense here from the establishment's friend, Tom Harris MP, who has a poster up on his site which argues against AV... by saying it gives more power to politicians not voters. The big lie. The very reverse of the truth. To set the record straight, here's the truth: AV would drastically reduce the number of safe seats in this country, because all those MPs who get a plurality and not a majority of votes (that's almost all MPs) would now have to worry about everyone's 2nd preferences. It would be much easier for voters to 'gang up' against the incumbent, if they wanted to. In the expenses scandal, the worst offenders were virtually all MPs with safe seats. Because THEY DON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WHAT THE VOTERS THINK, so they thought they could afford to break the rules - and, in many cases, they have been proven right. It is really low of Tom Harris to try to pretend that AV would be good for politics as usual. AV would in fact be a genuine politi...

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blogs/index.php/2010/05/04/blogger-profile-rupert-read May be of interest!

  This is very important stuff, well worth knowing -  Summary:   Last winter's big snowfall and cold temperatures in the eastern United States and Europe were likely caused by the loss of Arctic sea ice, researchers concluded at the International Polar Year Oslo Science Conference in Norway last week.   Climate change has warmed the entire Arctic region, melting 2.5 million square kilometres of sea ice, and that, paradoxically, is producing colder and snowier winters for Europe, Asia and parts of North America.    The context is that last winter was the hottest on record in many parts of the world. This, it turns out, may have contributed to the cold snap here in Britain. 2010 is looking set to be one of the hottest years on record here as in the rest of the world, despite that cold snap. The whole picture fits together, and is a very disturbing picture of gradual global over-heat and consequent climate chaos... Next time, before the U...

The term 'Oppposition Councillors' in this article is a little misleading, when in fact LibDems didn't really challenge the cuts (after all, they are part of the 'savage cuts' governing coalition), and no Labour councillors even bothered to turn up! Ie all this was Green work. Well done the Green Party County Councillors!: http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=NewsSplash&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=xDefault&itemid=NOED12%20Jul%202010%2017:24:24:840 Norfolk County Council pushes ahead with £10m cuts plan SHAUN LOWTHORPE Last updated: 12/07/2010 17:24:00 Council leaders today rebuffed calls not to wield the axe on Norfolk's careers service after agreeing to press ahead with a £10m cuts package which will see up to 90 jobs lost. Norfolk County Council's ruling cabinet recommended the cuts plan at a meeting today, which will now be put to the full council for a final decision on July 26. T...

This is a crucial MediaLens update - do read it. It reflects exactly my own experiences of sustained mostly fruitless attempts to complain to the BBC about biassed pro-establishment etc. coverage. Right down to Helen Boaden's disgraceful attempts to evade being reached, by repeatedly changing her email address. The better way to engage with the Beeb, in my experience, is to engage directly with the journos / producers etc. That way, at least sometimes one gets an interesting conversation or revelation.    The Beeb's MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media July 8, 2010 MEDIA ALERT: BBC = BIN AND BYPASS COMPLAINTS So Piss Off! Robert Fisk wrote last week in the Independent of how an unnamed friend of his, "a Very Senior Correspondent of the BBC", responded to a recent challenge. Fisk could no longer recall whether it "was about the BBC's grovelling coverage of Israel or its refusal to show a film seeking help for ...

http://www.leftfootforward.org/2010/07/nasty-party-let-off-the-leash-with-latest-batch-of-presentation-bills/ My latest article on Left Foot Forward. Check it out! (Do comment THERE rather than here, if you wish to comment.)  

The media continue to echo the government 's assumption that the war in Afghanistan is winnable, and that it is possible to 'set a timetable' for withdrawal over a period of years. If you want to understand why this is all wrong, then I suggest you read this remarkable and brilliant recent article: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n12/alex-de-waal/dollarised Dollarised Alex de Waal writes about the political marketplace State-building isn't working, and it isn't for lack of trying. The European and American countries that go by the name 'the international community' have poured expertise, money and troops into Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan, to name only the biggest and most challenging countries. But the more effort that is expended, the more troublesome these countries seem to become. It is not clear how 30,000 more American troops, or special corruption courts, will succeed in Afghanistan where the effort of the last s...