Rupert's Read

This news [see below] is vindication for the people of Norfolk - both in the Costessey/Norwich area and in the Kings Lynn area - who have fought for a decade against this absurd incinerator project, supported the whole while by the Green Party. Our congratulations to the Green Party's Michael De Whalley, co-founder of the anti-incinerator campaign KLWin, and to all who have fought by his side. The news is however political disaster for the Conservatives and for George Nobbs, Labour Leader of Norfolk Couty Council, who have unwisely backed this calamitiously-bad incinerator project: calamitous from a financial point of view, and also of course, if it had gone ahead, from an environmental point of view. We now need to look to a future in which Norfolk recycles and reduces its waste, rather than feeding monstrous burners. http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/politics/major_twist_in_king_s_lynn_incinerator_saga_as_officers_recommend_controversial_project_is_scrapped_...

Human-influenced climate change will spiral out of control, worsening poverty, inequality and conflict, unless we put renewables and energy conservation at the heart of energy policy. That was the warning today from Rupert Read, Green Party lead candidate in the east at the European elections, after scientists published the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report today (March 31 st ). However, Dr Read said: "We should see this report not as a document of doom but as a challenge we can rise to with the right thinking. " Of course we need to tackle high domestic energy prices and excessive profits for suppliers, but we should reorganise the sector, increasing public funding for domestic energy-saving devices and community renewable energy generation and keeping fossil fuels in the ground. This is certainly a wake-up call against fracking ." The new report warns that no-one will be immune from the effects of climate change, ...

Summary of large COMRes Poll from 15/16th March 2014: Euro Election voting intention in the Eastern Region (among those who expressed a voting intention and said they would definitely vote): Labour 14% UKIP 44% Conservative 21% Lib Dem 7% Green 12% Other 2% If this result occurs on May 22, then exactly what I have been saying will happen, in terms of seats switching: UKIP will gain at the expense of the Conservatives, and the Green Party will gain at the expense of the LibDems. Labour, weak in the East outside a few old urban strongholds, will remain static in terms of MEP-numbers. [ http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/IoS_SM_Political_Poll_16th_March_2014_%281%29.pdf  p.36, for details.] Encouraging news! Do share it.

No glory: My answer to Cameron's 'Great' War jingoism http://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/glory-averting-right-wing-revisionism-concerning-great-war/

RUPERT READ, BEHIND THE HEADLINES THE PHILOSOPHER AND POLITICIAN RUPERT READ WILL BE TALKING ABOUT WHAT MOTIVATES HIS WORK IN THE GREEN PARTY AT AN EVENT IN CAMBRIDGE ON TUESDAY. "Green Philosophy in Action" is the title of a talk he'll give at a meeting organised by Impington and Histon Climate Change Action. Dr Read, who is lead candidate for the Greens in the east of England at the European elections in May, is also Reader in Philosophy at the University of East Anglia and the author of nine books on political and environmental philosophy. He is especially interested in issues around responsible living, consumerism and economics and has argued in his book "Philosophy for Life" that philosophy is not a body of doctrine but may be used as a kind of therapy allowing us to improve our perspective on the world and our place in it. On Tuesday, he'll be offering some radical ideas and suggestions on how to respond to the threat of global warming and questionin...

Greens offer vision of energy future     One of Britain's best known environment campaigners, Sir Jonathon Porritt, will be in the east of England  today , Budget Day (Wednesday March 19 th ), calling for budget measures to address the long term cost-of-living crisis caused by the "end of oil".   He'll be in Norwich and Gt Yarmouth to launch a new report by Rupert Read, lead candidate for the Green Party in the east of England at the Euro elections in May, calling for an "energy revolution" in the region encompassing tidal, wave, wind and solar power plus energy waste-reduction to replace outdated fossil fuels and nuclear.   The Green Party says that only an invest-to-save programme such as this can address the cost-of-living crisis which will otherwise arise from the end of the age of cheap oil.   Sir Jonathon, who has served as both Director of Friends of the Earth and as Chair of the government's Sustainab...

Helen Geake and I in conversation at the place where the Magna Charta was drafted: right here in the East, at Bury: http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/bury_st_edmunds_time_team_tv_archaeologist_looks_to_past_for_social_future_1_3429460