Rupert's Read

Here in the Eastern Region we are on the verge of another reactor at #Sizewell, as well as one Bradwell, the technology is far from safe, with the waste generated being left for generations to come. Sadly, the Green Party is now the only political Party opposing nuclear power in this country. While public opinion here and across the world is swinging strongly against nuclear.  East of England Green Party Co-ordinator Rupert Read said, "Nuclear power is a toxic timebomb. It is the very opposite of green. It is crazy to be contemplating building new nuclear, while the situation at Fukushima in Japan is still spiralling out of control."     Green Party national Deputy Leader Adrian Ramsay, speaking in Norwich, has responded to the  government's announcement that up to eight new reactor sites have been  designated for development on behalf of the national Green Party.  Mr Ramsay said:  "While the Conservatives and LibDems often tal...

You can listen again to me on BBC Radio Norfolk this morning, here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00hcksk   Go 1 hour 8 minutes in. Let me know what you think!

Sustainability and social democracy A seminar to debate how the centre-left and the environmental movement can share goals, policies and approaches. Progressives have been torn by how to respond in principle, in practice and politically to increased global temperatures and the rise of environmental politics. Compass has produced an e-book looking at whether and how the traditions of social democracy and sustainability might be squared. A range of authors examine exactly how social democracy should respond to the imperative of sustainability. Compass with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung is holding a morning seminar of key Labour, union and environmental politicians, thinkers and activists to discuss the e-book and begin a more fundamental debate about whether and how the social and democratic can be reconciled with the sustainable. This UK focused seminar is a precursor to a bigger European seminar being planned for the Autumn 2012 in London as part of the Compass/FES ongoing Building the ...

What lesbians don't understand about straight men: http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=2962   See what you think!  

FORTHCOMING SEMINAR Thursday 14 th July 2011, 1300-1400 45B AZ 04 University of Surrey Dr Rupert Read UEA (Philosophy) A policy proposal to take future generations seriously: Strong guardians     Plato said that, if we are to have a just society, we should be ruled by guardians. Habermas and other deliberative-democratic philosophers of course abhor such autocracy. But: what if the guardians were selected democratically, by sortition? And what if their deliberations became in turn a high-profile model of what deliberation in a democratic society could be? Still, there seems little case for substituting guardians for normal elected representatives, for decisions which can be made about us, by us ourselves or by people who represent us. But: what about cases where the people who ought to be heard in or even to be making the decisions have no voice -- even over matters which are life or death matters for them? Future people are the most...

You know that you are making an impact when they threaten to kill you...: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/06/australia-climate-scientists-death-threats

From our local paper, the  Eastern Daily Press: 1. Thursday June 15th :   Public to "have their say" on 40Mw Snetterton biomass plant using straw and wood chip:  See http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuelwatch/message/4818   [I will be going to a preview of this public exhibition.] 2. Friday June 16th :  Shortage of straw fears for pig farmers (as below) reported by NFU ... A need for joined up thinking about resources ?! ... http://www.edp24.co.uk/lifestyle/food-and-drink/norfolk-food-features/shortage_of_straw_fears_for_pig_farmers_1_922359 Shortage of straw fears for pig farmers By MICHAEL POLLITT, Agricultural editor Friday, June 17, 2011 8:16 AM A shortage of straw from drought-stricken crops across eastern England will cause headaches for livestock farmers, the National Pig Association warned last night. As arable farmers gathered for the industry event, Cereals 2011, the Natio...

Congratulations to Diane Hoy on last night's great result!: >> Green - 757 - 50% >> Tory -555 - 36% >> Lab - 182 - 12% >> UKIP - 26 - 2% More news on Cllr Michael Hoy's blog http://mikehullbridge.wordpress.com/ Nice comments from the local Labour Party http://labourinrochford.com/2011/06/16/one-less-tory-%e2%80%93-one-more-green/ This takes us to 4 principle authority councillors in Essex and means we have a group on Rochford (2) to join the group on Braintree (2). Eastern Region now has 42 Green PA councillors on 14 authorities, compared to 2 on 1 in 1999.

Ecological sustainability require some kind of aspiration at least to genuinely respect the limits to growth . That we as a species have already breached. (See http://books.google.com/books/about/Beyond_the_limits.html?id=0ZO4AAAAIAAJ  )   Here's my take on how these issues, especially the Green New Deal or its successor, should be framed: http://rupertsread.blogspot.com/2010/07/against-growthism-and-how-to-understand.html     What we actually need I think is the kind of programme envisaged in Tim Jackson's  Prosperity without growth.   'Sustainable growth' by contrast is a piece of deceptive spin. I can't sign up to it; it would be like signing up to support 'clean coal'. It would be great if there were any reason at all to believe that it is an attainable objective. There isn't (see Porritt's book for the proof, btw), and there is good reason (see the work of Herman Daly, etc.) to believe that there is a principled reason w...

If the government are serious about ecosystem services and the benefits it brings to society then they would not be cutting staff, they would be investing in agencies like Natural England, in recognition of the longer term benefits (economic, social and environmental) that good 'ecosystem services' can bring. But I can reveal today that they ARE cutting staff in precisely the aspects of the work of NE and other similar agencies which are responsible for - managing and preventing droughts... Caroline Spelman MP basked in the triumph of DEFRA's UK National Ecosystems Assessment ('NEA'; an initiative, she failed to state that was conceived and started by the last Government) on the Today programme last week (June 2 nd ) telling listeners how: ' We have until now, I think, taken nature for granted very often and not understood that the services it provides actually do have cost and certainly if we destroy nature there is a really significant cost. ...

  I'm visiting Hullbridge on the afternoon of the 14 th June with a small party from Norwich (including elected Councillors) to support Green Party Candidate Diane Hoy in this by-election...   The by-election is being held on the 16 th June and Diane stands a very good chance to become the second Green Councillor on the District Council by joining her husband Michael who was elected last year. The key issue at this by-election is the Tory policy of building 500 houses on Green Belt land within the village.   This was opposed by over 800 residents during a consultation last year, which the Tory Administration has ignored and the Green Party will now be demanding that the Council meet to discuss this in full. I am really looking forward to meeting the voters of Hullbridge this Tuesday. They have a great opportunity at this byelection to create a Green Party group on the local Council, by electing Diane to make up a Hoy husband-and-wife team on the Coun...

See today's #Torygraph story on this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8551392/Health-Secretary-Andrew-Lansley-funding-crisis-threatens-the-NHS.html The lie is that there is a funding crisis threatening the N.H.S. IF his 'reforms' don't go through. The truth is simpler: that there is a funding crisis facing the NHS. Full stop. The government's cuts, the money wasted and given away to fatcats due to ongoing privatisation exercises (including of course PFI) and the lack of any serious efforts to 'green' the N.H.S. (e.g. to place more emphasis (and push more money into) on prevention, and less on mega-hospitals) mean that there is a huge funding hole looming in the N.H.S. over the next few years. Talk to anyone who understands the N.H.S. (such as those who advised the last government on it) as I have done, and they will tell you the same. The funding gap is unprecedentedly large. The wheels will come off, unless more money is injected, ...

So: the German Government is looking far enough to see sense as far as Nuclear power is concerned. When will the UK follow Germany's lead, abandon its foolish nuclear ambitions, and invest properly in renewable energy instead? Solar, tidal, wave, wind and biomass are the energies of the future - and we are rich in all of them, here in the east of England. I realise that there are those who will say that Bradwell and Sizewell are safe -- but the exact same thing was thought of Fukushima before the devastating consequences of the multiple meltdown that occurred. 300,000 people are going to have to end up leaving their homes - possibly forever. Is that really what we want, here in England's green and pleasant land? These things were brought about by an inability to cool the reactors due, ironically, to an interruption in the water and energy supply to the Fukushima plant. That could happen anywhere - it doesn't need a tsunami... Germany aims to replace its nuclear programme ...