Pensions Are Worth Fighting For

The governments economic policies are not working, so time for plan B. Instead of a plan for a low carbon future Osbourne wants millions unemployed while building roads causing our emissions to increase. Those out of work will need support while the tax take spirals down.

The wealthiest 1% continue to avoid paying tax while the govern ment hits the poorest paid hard. Less pensions for more work, many will have no retirement but work till they die. And with cuts to health and safety more will die particularly in construction.     

it seems every promise made by the tories is broken, we are no nearer paying off the debt while their greenest government ever boast is a bad joke.

Time for people to wake up to whats hapening. Espesially the LD who continue to talk about prigressive politics while propping up the heirs of Thatcher. Time for a change.  

True Food Win 'Best Retail Initiative' at the BBC Food & Farming awards.

Congratulations to a worthy winner, Readings own True Food Coop.

A special programme on the awards will be broadcast on Radio 4 on Friday 25th November 12 noon and featured on the Food Programme Radio 4, 12.30pm Sunday 27th and repeated 3.30pm Monday 28th. Or listen again.

True Food Co-op only exists today because of the generous contributions of its many members. Join a winning team.

Keith Taylor MEP In Reading

This week Keith Taylor, Green MEP for the South-East of England, came to Shinfield and Reading.

He joined a campaign to lower speed limits in the nearby villages from 40 to 30 mph, and to 20 mph by the two schools in Shinfield. They campaigned in Three Mile Cross, where they gathered signatures for the petition, which is available online .

See more here on Marjories blog

Poorest councils will face biggest cuts

Deprived inner-city areas of London and large cities in the north are facing the most drastic reductions of up to 8.9% this year alone, with the shires and county councils relatively protected by their burgeoning council tax revenue. The Local Government Association labelled the cuts the "toughest in living memory".

Exterminate

Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham, Manchester, Rochdale, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Doncaster and South Tyneside are among the 36 local authorities that take the maximum cut of 8.9%.

Meanwhile Dorset gets a 0.25% increase in funding and Windsor and Maidenhead, Poole, West Sussex, Wokingham, Richmond upon Thames and Buckinghamshire all get cuts of 1% or below.

Cant have anything to do with which Party runs whitch council no can it.
Its time for a change.

Climate March London 3rd December guest post

Campaign against Climate Change     www.campaigncc.org

March and Rally in London, Saturday 3rd December
Assembles 12 noon near St Paul's (for precise location check www.campaigncc.org) for march to Parliament.

Climate Vigil and symbolic "Climate  Refugee Camp"
Midnight Friday 2nd on the Thames foreshore near the Millennium bridge
 

7%  

7% of the world's population produce 50% of the world's emissions
7% of the world's emissions are produced by 50% of the world's population
 
Bring your placard / t-shirt / cardboard cut-out / symbol for 7% to the demo

Full timetable and event details:

9.00 pm to 5.00 am (Friday 2nd-Saturday 3rd)  Vigil and symbolic "Climate Refugee Camp" on the Thames foreshore near the Millennium (wobbly) Bridge. Main vigil events from Midnight to 1.00 am.

Organised by "Durban 2011 Global Day of Action Group" including Hackney and Tower Hamlets Friends of the Earth, World Development Movement, Biofuelwatch, 350.org and Christian Ecology Link. 

Turn the desolate foreshore alongside the rising waters of the Thames into a 'stage' on which to bring the reality of climate change impacts on vulnerable people around the world home to the City of London, the heart of the consumerist carbon-burning economy that created those impacts in the first place....

If you come to this event please wear stout footwear and warm, windproof and waterproof clothing. Download a Foreshore Safety leaflet here. (A candle in a jar would also be good !)


12 noon  (Saturday 3rd) Assemble for the Climate Justice March - assembly point will be in the St Pauls / Millenium Bridge area (check www.campaigncc.org for precise location soon). The march will leave around 1.00 pm. March in support of the tens of thousands mobilising in South Africa to demand climate justice at the Durban Climate Talks.

2.30 - 3.00 pm  Climate Justice Rally outside Parliament. Demonstrators will split into two groups to represent the 7% versus the 50% (see above) and demand urgent action to achieve a Zero Carbon Britain by 2030.

3.30 pm End of event.

This year the floods in Pakistan have returned displacing 5 million and killing hundreds. Last year's floods were the worst in living memory with 20 million affected and 2,000 killed. Last year also saw record breaking temperatures in Russia with wildfires and crop failures while this year we have seen the latest in a series of exceptional droughts in East Africa causing famine in Somalia.        

The frequency and severity of weather related disasters is on the increase and scientists tell us this is due to human-induced climate change caused overwhelmingly by the high emissions and high consuming lifestyles of richer countries like our own. Its the poorest and most vulnerable around the world - many of them in Africa where this year's climate talks are being held - who have done the least to cause the problem but who are suffering the most. And all this is set to get Climate Change lists.

World headed for irreversible climate change in five years

If fossil fuel infrastructure is not rapidly changed, the world will 'lose for ever' the chance to avoid dangerous climate change.

The world is likely to build so many fossil-fuelled power stations, energy-guzzling factories and inefficient buildings in the next five years that it will become impossible to hold global warming to safe levels, and the last chance of combating dangerous climate change will be "lost for ever", according to the most thorough analysis yet of world energy infrastructure.

Anything built from now on that produces carbon will do so for decades, and this "lock-in" effect will be the single factor most likely to produce irreversible climate change, the world's foremost authority on energy economics has found. If this is not rapidly changed within the next five years, the results are likely to be disastrous.

"The door is closing," Fatih Birol, chief economist at the International Energy Agency, said. "I am very worried – if we don't change direction now on how we use energy, we will end up beyond what scientists tell us is the minimum [for safety]. The door will be closed forever."

Shock As One Million Youths Unemployed

The current generation face a miserable xmas and a bleak new year. Unemployment us up, inflation is up, education grants are cut  and student loans tripled while inflation soars. Cuts are hitting those least able to cope. Civil servants face more cuts include; health workers, teachers, police,  even border agency staff.

Many people who voted Tory or LD have said this is  not what they voted for.

Time for a change.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/youth-unemployment-level-shocking-6262890.html

CBI Support FIT

Green groups have neen protesting the halving if the solar renewables subsidy feed in tariff. Now the CBI has also said how it damages buisneses investing in the future.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15687873

The local government association has similarly stated councils will loose millions canceling schemes for solar roofs.

Friends if the earth are mounting a legal challenge, good luck to them  

Update:
News yesterday was that worldwide fossil fuel gets 8 times the subsidy of renewablea. Time to invest in future generations, health,  education, jobs in renewables. time for a change.

May Must Go

Not fit for office. In oppisition in 2004 said Minister is respoinsible not underlings. She was right then and should resign. Time for change. 

Free Tibet Petition

Days ago, Palden Choetso walked out of her nunnery, covered herself in petrol and set herself on fire while pleading for a 'free Tibet'. Minutes later she died. In the past month, nine monks and nuns have self-immolated to protest a growing Chinese crackdown on the peaceful Tibetan people.

These tragic acts are a desperate cry for help. Machine gun-toting Chinese security forces are beating and disappearing monks, laying siege to monasteries, and even killing elderly people defending them -- all in an effort to suppress Tibetan rights. China severely restricts access to the region. But if we can get key governments to send diplomats in and expose this growing brutality, we could save lives.

We have to act fast -- this horrific situation is spiraling out of control behind a censorship curtain. Over and over we have seen that when diplomats themselves bear witness to atrocities, they are motivated to act, and increase political pressure. Let’s answer Palden's tragic cry and build a massive petition to the six world leaders with the most influence in Beijing to send a mission to Tibet and speak out against the repression. Sign the urgent petition

Petition to Stop Cuts to Solar PV Feed-in Tariffs

On 31st October 2011 the Department for Energy and Climate Change proposed to cut feed-in tariffs (FITs) for solar energy generation from 43.3p to 21p, a drop of over 50%. This cut would affect retrofit installations of less than 4kW. Cuts proposed to FITs in other generation capacities were similarly drastic. We petition the government to withdraw this proposal and halt their attempt to cut FITs across all capacities, but especially below 4kW. These cuts would be highly destructive to the solar energy industry, which as a new sector is highly vulnerable to drastic market changes. If the plan is passed, it will jeopardise the 25,000 jobs directly linked to the industry, not to mention put terrific strain on at least ten times as many that that supply the industry such as manufacturers, movers, scaffolders, electricians, plumbers, web developers and stationers.

Solar has been too successful - that's why tariffs were cut

The premature FIT cuts are going to wreck green industry and damage the case for community and business schemes.

Remember Climategate? Why Wasn't This Story Equally Big

When formerly 'skeptical' scientist warms to the reality of Climate Change, its time to pay attention. He even looked all the way back to data compiled by Ben Franklin and Thomas Jeferson. And was sponsered by the 'Libertarian' Koch brothers.

Physicist Richard Mueller's research over the last two years reaches the same conclusion espoused by an overwhelming majority of the scientific community: the world's getting warmer.

His findings line up with those of NOAA and NASA, which agree that the land is about 1.6 degrees warmer than it was during the 1950s.

Perhaps now we can move past the decades of climate-change denier distraction, and get down to dealing with the crisis.

Go Figure

Tories were in revolt over Europe fearing its increasing powers.

But are very keen for Greece to do what they are told by the Europe. In a democracy it's always legitimate to turn to the people,, why not have a vote on this.

Its easy to ask others to undergo austerity measures, much harder to apply it to your own country.

And if were not for Greece we would be talking about Ireland, Italy, Spain and Portugal. The Euro is unstable, it will continue from crisis to crisis, kinder to disband it now.

Once upon a time Cameron supported feed-in tariffs

The government announced how it was reducing the support it gives to the solar industry through Feed in Tariffs. Greenpeace are reminding people that once Cameron wanted to convince people how Green he was by supporting this, now its cut in half.

The Tories are still blaming everything they do on the last Government. But the financial disaster we are in is as much the Tories fault as anyones, back in his day Cameron was praising Brown as an 'awesome' chancellor, they hope we have forgotten this. They didnt act as oposition should have but instead Cameron described his rival as “awesome” and “a figure of colossal power and intellect”.

We are all in this together, some are more 'in' than others.