The Economics of Happiness

I'm co-hosting this event: do come and join us! This is an important film.

Putting Pickles in a pickle: My latest LFF article

Together, let's stop the craziness that would be the return of weekly landfill-rubbish collections: http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/09/pickles%E2%80%99s-bribe-to-councils-is-a-white-elephant/

Caroline Lucas MP - Conservative Home analysis

The Tory blogsite ConservativeHome recently did some research on the media
impact of the 2010 intake of MPs. Not surprisingly, Caroline comes first by
a long way, with 387 media mentions since election.
:-)
Why is this? It's because she's the best politician in Britain; but, more
than that, it is because there is a gradually increasing recognition that
our one MP is actually the thin end of a very large Green wedge. The arrival
of the Green Party in Parliament is more than the arrival of one MP; it is
the beginning of a story that will grow and grow, like Labour did a century
ago.

The full list is here: http://t.co/J9kBrVOF
For further info and analysis, see
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2011/08/which-of-the-class-of-2015-are-making-an-impact-neildotobrien-has-the-answers.html

Norfolk's rural transport cuts revealed - Eastern Daily Press

This is really quite appalling - when you juxtapose it alongside £15m already spent on the NDR...
http://www.edp24.co.uk:80/news/politics/norfolk_s_rural_transport_cuts_revealed_1_1075245

The hikers' message to America

On the celebrated Hikers, thankfully just freed from Iran. [I was among those who campaigned for their release, from the early stages, partly because I'm a friend of a friend of one of them.]  Shane's first public statement was "... We sincerely hope for freedom for other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran."   BBC showed it, but ABC World News (unsurprisingly) cut it off, mid-sentence, right before that part.

 

See here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15000563
http://abcnews.go.com/International/shane-bauer-joshua-fattal-american-hikers-freed-jail/story?id=14569697

RupertsRead is 3rd top Cllr blog

http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/258497/top-35-councillor-blogs-2011.thtml  I'm the 3rd top Councilor blog in the country from any Party (and the top Green); quite good going seeing as I stepped down in May! ;-)

The Case Against The NDR

Click on image to enlarge:

On future people

My just-published new article in the popular philosophy journal, THINK:

http://journals.cambridge.org/repo_A83AqV93

 

Upper House Reform

The Green Party's nominees for Lords appintments, with the Party Leader; photo taken at the recent Sheffield Conference

UEA CAFÉ CONVERSATIONS - What Is Freedom?

Do join me on Weds 16th November, 12.30pm at ALADDIN’S CAFÉ, 3 MAGDALEN ST for my talk/discussion "What Is Freedom".
(click on the flyer to enlarge)

Broadcasting House: Green House, on growth

John Barry, my colleague in the Green House thinktank, is on iplayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qnj3 or here

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b014f3y0 23 minutes in.

Rawls rapped

See my latest article over at TALKING PHILOSOPHY: http://blog.talkingphilosophy.com/?p=3100

Thanks for voting for RupertsRead!

Rupert's Read is up to 4th in the Total Politics listing of green blogs: http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/257557/top-20-green-blogs-2011.thtml

I'm up to 8th in the TP listing of green blog-gers, too: http://www.totalpolitics.com/blog/257572/top-20-green-bloggers-2011.thtml

I am I confess slightly surprised that those numbers aren't the other way around. I don't consider Rupert's Read to be a work of art, as a blog. Much of my best blogging is probably on Talking Philosophy, Better Nation, Liberal Conspiracy, Bright Green Scotland, Left Foot Forward, Green Words Workhop, and Open Democracy, and then just gets 'aggregated' to this blog. Maybe people have looked kindly on the aggregating, and like being able to find all my stuff here, including Rupert's Read 'exclusives'.

Anyway, whatever the reasoning behind those who voted for me, thanks!

 

The east-west rail-link: my thoughts

The recent news about the East / West rail consortium's bid to link Norwich with Oxford , Milton Keynes, Bedford and beyond is strongly welcomed by the Eastern England Green Party. Not only would this line bring many (and much needed) jobs to Eastern England, but it will also remove traffic from our ever more congested roads. It makes sense to invest more in the rail network, as fuel becomes more expensive, because more can of course be moved by rail with less friction, thus removing numerous lorries from the roads.

Nevertheless, I am concerned that the improved links envisaged here may be used as an excuse by the rail companies to increase their already astronomical fares. In addition, as has already been demonstrated by the recent high speed rail link from London to Leeds , stops in between are often left off the route and other train services become slower as a result. In my opinion, these are good reasons for continuing to lobby the government to re-regulate the train companies.

 

In other words: let's build the rail link envisaged here. But let's do it under a renationalised rail system, not under the current un-joined-up fat-cat-dominated privatised rail system that successive Labour and Conservative/LibDem governments have left us with.

The economic crash resulted from the limits to growth

Saral Sarkar is one of the few people to integrate successfully a full ecological perspective into thinking about the 2008 downturn. See his new book on this, here:

http://www.oekosozialismus.net/The+Crises+of+Capitalism.+Saral+Sarkar.+2011.pdf

 

If you don't have time to read the whole book, then at least read the final two chapters. Basically, Sarkar argues that the current crisis of capitalism is a result of the limits to growth, and that it is going to be permanent... There will never again be a return to growth...

Its _Producerism_, stupid...

My new #GreenWordsWorkshop -style piece on 'producerism' (as opposed to consumerism) and the 'riots', on the impressive 'Better Nation' blog: http://www.betternation.org/2011/09/producerism/