Rupert's Read

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Green Councillors are concerned that the Labour-run City Council has disposed of significant social housing in Norwich and allowed it to be demolished without firm plans for replacement. In 2006, the Green Party opposed the City Council's decision to uproot council tenants and leaseholders at 50 flats in Barrack Street on the basis of developer plans for a mixed use development.    In 2007, 19 sheltered flats at Greyhound Opening were 'decommissioned' and elderly residents were relocated.   Both sites still lie empty.    Green Councillor Paul Neale, County council candidate for Town Close said: " I am shocked, when there is a national housing crisis, and a local crisis made worse by the Bedroom tax, that tenants at Barrack Street and Greyhound Opening were moved against their wishes and the sites remain empty. The Green Party is pressing the Labour Cabinet at the City Council to urgently set out a solution to this issue. " G...

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There's no onus on us at 'Leave our kids alone' to provide evidence of harm from ads - the onus is on the advertisers to provide evidence that such ads don't do harm. It's utterly anti-precautionary to fill kids' minds with this stuff - it's like filling the atmosphere w ith carbon dioxide, or filling your lungs with smoke. There's no onus, in such cases, to show evidence of harm. Absence of evidence (of harm) is not evidence of absence. Have a listen to me on Radio 4, on YOU AND YOURS, debating with the ad industry's spin-master, who is trying to obfuscate this:   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017y992

On May 15th: The meeting is at the Charing Cross Centre in St. John Maddermarket at 7.30. All welcome. 'Guardians for future generations' is my exact topic.

Go 7 minutes in to hear RR's case for why we should   # BanAdsAimedAtKids :   http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p016xrph   This afternoon on BBC RadioNorfolk.     Hear my debate this afternoon with a marketing man on Radio Wales (Go 1 hr 48 mins into this, to hear it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rt4mm ) on whether or not we should ban ads aimed at kids.

This is a smattering of the coverage we've garnered today: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/9985167/Advertisements-aimed-at-young-children-are-immoral-and-should-be-banned.html http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307275/Ban-adverts-targeted-11s-Campaign-group-end-industry-built-childrens-pester-power.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/11/ban-advertising-young-children-yes Join the campaign! www.leaveourkidsalone.org  

"I have been heartened by the interaction between Independents and Greens, and their attempts to restore democratic process to the governing of Norfolk. I wish every Green and every Independent Councillor-candidate good luck, and I'm positive that there will be more Green Party and more Independent Councillors on Norfolk County Council after the voters have had their say on May 2nd." Dr. Ian Gibson, former Labour Party MP for Norwich North.

A straw in the wind from Bury St. Edmonds. When our Green candidate (and sitting Councillor) Mark Ereira-Guyer knocked he asked whether they'd like his election address as a Green - and they said 'Yes, absolutely'.

Ipswich #Green Party are going great guns this year for the local Council elections. I was dead impressed with them when I met them recently. This photo was taken down at the also-increasingly-impressive riverside area of Ipswich...

Me with some of the Green Party candidates standing in the County Council elections in Colchester, last weekend.   -- Rupert Read Green Party East of England Co-ordinator. http://rupertread.net [If you have an urgent email for me while I am away from a regular computer, you may wish to try contacting me instead on rupertread+mob AT gmail.com] WHY NOT FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER?: twitter.com/GreenRupertRead (my 'politician' account) AND on twitter.com/RupertRead (my 'personal' account).

As the Grand National approaches tomorrow, we've already had one death at Aintree, this year: http://metro.co.uk/2013/04/05/battlefront-death-at-aintree-shows-organisers-have-grand-national-meeting-safety-badly-wrong-3584482/ . The macabre 'betting slip' above, drawn up as a reality-check by smart opponents of the race to illustrate the nature of the problem here, is in that sense, sadly, already out of date. (If you had your money on the 4-1 outsider, you've already lost...) Despite 'the National' being part of our annual life when I was growing up, I won't be betting on any horses or taking time out of my weekend to watch it. So why the opposition? There will be activists from the Fight Against Animal Cruelty in Europe (FAACE) protesting outside Aintree station to raise awareness of the number of fatalities of horses in the race. The thing is: it is one thing for humans to take part in a risky sport, if they choose to. ...

The new leader of the Green Party in England and Wales Natalie Bennett will be visiting Norwich tomorrow (Friday April 5 th ) to launch campaigning for the county council elections next month.   She'll be visiting Norwich Foodbank to highlight the impacts of recent welfare cuts and find out why the foodbank expects a huge rise in people needing emergency food supplies.   Ms Bennett said: "I'm visiting Norwich Foodbank to highlight widening inequality. On Saturday we will see a £100,000 tax break to UK millionaires, while this week's cuts hit struggling families and those receiving benefits the hardest."   A key element of the Green Party platform for the forthcoming county council elections will be protecting services for vulnerable people. Norfolk has six Green county councillors, more than any other county in the country. At the county council budget meeting in February, the Green Party tabled an amendment to prote...