Rupert's Read

"Green Snowball" - low carbon campaigning in action - Monday 20th Green Party European election candidates and supporters took trains to London on Monday 20th April to campaign right across the six counties of Eastern Region. Starting at first from Norwich, Clacton and Peterborough, the Greens headed for London, taking the train to key stations on the network and stopping for an hour or so to deliver leaflets and canvass local residents.  Along the way, candidates and supporters joined at many more towns including Luton, St. Albans, Bedford, Stowmarket, Ipswich, Witham and Chelmsford. The plan was to visit up to 50 stations on 7 routes, with supporters joining up along the way - a "snowball" effect as more and more supporters joined in the fun on the way to London.

GREENS' EURO ELECTION CAMPAIGN KICKS OFF!   Two of the country's best known green campaigners will help to launch the Green Party's Eastern Region Euro Election campaign in Cambridge on Thursday 23rd April at 7pm outside the Senate House in central Cambridge.   Sir Jonathan Porritt, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission and Tony Juniper (1), recent Executive Director of Friends of the Earth will be heading up the endorsement of Dr. Rupert Read and the six other candidates on the Green Party's list for the Euro Elections on June 4 th .   Rupert Read said   "All the parties seem to be trying to paint themselves with a green gloss, but its a thin veneer to try and cover their unsustainable business-as-usual policies. The Green Party has consistently put forward a vision of a genuinely sustainable future over many decades. It is welcome, and significant, that two of the most respected green spokespersons in the country see in the Green...

As expected, list of sites for possible deployment by 2025 includes Bradwell and Sizewell   The list of potential sites for new nuclear power stations announced recently (1) includes both Bradwell in Essex and Sizewell in Suffolk, as was widely expected.   Public consultation lasts just 1 month, and there is bound to be widespread concern as to whether any level of public response will change any decisions, compounded by the new national planning regime which will take decision making away from local communities and hand it over to the Infrastructure Planning Commission (IPC)  (2).   Following the assessment period, sites that are "found to be suitable for the development of new nuclear power stations" will be listed in a draft Nuclear National Policy statement. The Green Party has long campaigned against nuclear power due to its high cost and the unsolved problems with radioactive waste and risks of radioactive discharges. There also remains a small, b...

Dr. Rupert Read, the lead Green Party candidate for the Eastern Region in the forthcoming European elections, visited Beccles on Saturday as part of a tour of Suffolk to see the work of Green Party Councillors within the County. Rupert, who arrived in Beccles by train, was particularly interested in the promotion of rail travel in eastern Suffolk by the provision of a passing loop at Beccles.   Rupert said “It is excellent to see local Green Party Councillor, Graham Elliott, making progress on this important infrastructure project.   It will make a real difference to Beccles and will promote more sustainable travel across the whole of eastern Suffolk.”   Rupert then went on to visit the open air swimming pool in Beccles to offer support to the newly formed Beccles Lido Limited which is hoping to take over ownership and management of the pool in the very near future.   Rupert Read adds “This is an ambitious community project that will have a real impact on the town and the sur...

The Greens have scrupulously analysed the Conservatives' green paper number 8 on de-carbonising Britain, which was published in January and which forms the basis of current thinking at the top of the Conservative Party (as emphasised in George Osborne's speech this week), if not necessarily amongst many actual Tory MPs and councillors.   C'llr Rupert Read, prospective Green Party MEP for Eastern England, said: "They call themselves the 'Conservative' Party. But what their proposals add up to would be a degradation of our shared environment. They would not conserve for us all a decent future. "If you are actually interested in conserving things, and if you want a future in which we as a nation are energy-independent, the only way is Green." A communique from the Green Party nationally said: "A few of the Tories' new ideas closely mirror pre-existing Green Party policies - except that despite all experience, the Tories have p...

Here is the link to the powerpoint pres on this talk that I am giving tonight in Saffron Walden: http://www.rupertread.fastmail.co.uk/Peak_Soil.ppt

Rupert Read gets Green Party "shadow" public services portfolio - and calls for major re-nationalisation programme Norwich City Councillor Rupert Read has been appointed to an important national post in the Green Party. The Green Party of England & Wales will announce on Thursday April 9 that Dr Read, a Norwich Green Party councillor and lecturer at the University of East Anglia is the party's new national spokesperson on public services - a key area of policy for the Greens. Councillor Read has greeted his appointment by immediately stressing the party's determination "to fight for accountable public services, and to keep pushing the radical and ethical agenda on public services that separates the Green Party from the big three parties." Speaking from his home in Merton Road Norwich today, Rupert Read condemned the government's plans to continue privatising public services. He said: "The Green Party wants public services which do...