Royal Weeding

Some sort of Wedding tomorrow, most have got the day off so time to do some weeding.

I am not a big fan of Royalty, though I wish them well. If they paid tax properly I would like them more. So I wont be watching the live coverage or attending a street party.

BBC Radio Berkshire is really going Wedding crazy with loads of airtime this week. Partly as Kate is a Berkshire girl, she is from Bucklebury.

Tony Blair and Gordon Brown have not been invited to the royal wedding, and the Syrian ambassador has despite killing peaceful protesters, Saudi Arabia also. But not Obama, who must be devastated.

cheers Jim Jepps for posting the official policy of the Green Party of England and Wales towards the monarchy.

No person should acquire the right to any office of government by inheritance.
The monarchy should cease to be an office of government. The legislative, executive and judicial roles of the monarch should cease.

Peers and members of the royal family should have the same civil rights and fiscal obligations as other citizens.

We think a settlement of property held by the current royal family should be made, to divide it between that required for the private life of current members of the family and that to be public property.

superinjunction

The latest trends in superinjunction seem a waste of time.

Despie a judges ruling that the names cannot be mentioned anywhere on the Earth, he didnt count on the net. Some internet sites, such as twitter, have seen this as a challene. Most of the country has internet access, so despie the traditional media being muzzled; almist anyone who wans to know the names can find out.

Indeed because of the way its been done, far more attention has been paid to this than would otherwise have been the case.

Once again the law appears to be an ass. Just as a few yeas ago people would sell the book "spycatcher" on the streets as it wasnt available in the shops. And record banned by the BBC sold extra copies. Even before the net people found a way. Now it just takes seconds.

Time for MPs to reform the law, i it looks ridiculous so do many institutions. I recall Clegg promising to be the greatest reformer in centuries. A little less talk and more action required.

'Greenest Government Ever' plans to scrap green laws

On Monday, it was revealed that the government might scrap vital laws which protect wildlife and the countryside and help stop climate change. Some Tories have branded the rules ‘red tape’ and say they could be scrapped within months!

We need to work together to make sure our wildlife, our countryside and our planet are protected.

In the past, David Cameron has made headlines promising to run "the greenest government ever". Scrapping these laws would be a disaster for all of us, including his party. We are all in this together after all.

Please take 30 seconds to speak up for legal protection for wildlife and the environment, sign 38 degrees petition

Among the laws under threat are the Climate Change Act and the Wildlife and Countryside Act. These aren’t little-known laws that no one cares about. The Wildlife and Countryside Act protects wild birds, their nests and eggs, and makes sure that national parks and marine reserves are protected. The UK’s Climate Change Act was a world first which was an attempt to start to reduce our emissions.

We know that when we work together we can make sure the government doesn’t get away with plans which could hurt the environment. When they decided to try to sell off our forests, over half a million of us got together and convinced them to drop their plans.

The government says it is "consulting" before scrapping these laws - so let's give them a consultation response they can't ignore! Please help make sure we have a huge petition telling the government to keep laws which protect our wildlife and our environment.

Sign the petition to send a powerful message to David Cameron and the government:

Campaign for planting new trees

The Woodland Trust has a new easy-to-use web gizmo means you can drag and drop trees on to photos of your local streets or parks.

Send your transformed photos to your local councillor to show them the difference trees make.

Take and upload photos of a nearby street or park
Drag and drop trees to your picture using our new web tool
Add a message and send straight to your local councillors

Will this make a difference?

Yes - your local council has...
• The power to plant thousands of trees in your community
• Budgets set aside for environmental action
• Environmental targets it needs to meet

If enough of us take part it will make your councillors sit up and take notice and the Trust can help you give your message maximum impact.

So what are you waiting for?

Makes Me Laugh

Laurel And Hardy have not been fashionable for a long time, but try these clips.




And improving on the original




Happy bank holiday everyone

“Crazy” to change catchment boundaries

After months of scaring parents of children who would like to go to Maiden Erlegh School, today everything changed. The school became an academy and is now independant of Wokingham Borough Council.

Rather than admit that the new admissions policy was crazy, or that academy schools were crazy, the council saif the new academy would be crazy to change what they had decided to do.

Councillor Rob Stanton, executive member for children’s services, told members: “From tomorrow Maiden Erlegh will be an academy and academies can set their own admissions. We have no indication they will do that and they would be crazy to do that after what we have just gone through. What we do need to do with academies is to find ways of working with them and we are well on the way to that.”

As an academy Maiden Erlegh will receive its funding directly from the Government although it could buy back services from the council.

The school has said it will not be making any changes to the school’s name or uniform.
ways.

The Greens believe changes such as these are likely to be of great concern to many parents and the community at large. “We are concerned about a number of issues,” Green spokesperson Tom Harris said, “principally that these schools would then be free to change their admission policies so that they no longer give first preference to local children. We also question whether governors, who act in a voluntary capacity, are able to fulfil all the responsibilities of employers and can carry out their duties without any support from the local authority."

Are we just creating private schools but the public paying for them?

Oops I U-turned Again; Forest Sell Off, This Time We Really Mean It

The Government has made another U-turn, this time however, its a U-turn on a U-turn. Do they know what they are doing anymore?

Defra recently announced that the plan to sell off 15% of England's public forest - started under the last government, and which was never subject to consultation but merely postponed - is to go ahead within the span of the spending review.

This means that 40,000 hectares will be sold within the next four years, with no genuine guarantee on the future of England's remaining 218,000 hectares.

The coalition's apparent u-turn on the forestry sale was heralded as a victory of people power, with Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman apologising in the House of Commons, saying "I am sorry, we got this one wrong - but we have listened to people's concerns".

While campaigners were rightly proud that the government seemed to have listened to them, the fight is far from over.

This recent announcement, quietly slipped out, unmasks the 'u-turn' as a mere stunt. The future of our forest is far from secure. People value and enjoy English woodland, which is an important part of our heritage. They want forests to be sustainably managed in the interests of biodiversity and climate protection, and they do not want their right of access to be removed or obstructed.

The Green Party believes that our forests should remain in public ownership. We want to work with the Forestry Commission to improve environmental stewardship of natural spaces, striking the right balance between public education, enjoyment, and preserving forests as a haven for wildlife.

38 degree petition here 537,059 signed so far.

RIP Elizabeth Sladen

www.doctorwhonews.net/2011/04/dwn190411204508-elisabeth-sladen-1948.html

Elisabeth Sladen died in the morning of 19th April, having been battling with cancer for some time.

What Is A Green Job

Green jobs are about a reduced impact on the environment, good working conditions and being able to earn a decent income. This film by Jean Lambert, London's Green MEP since 1999, looks at Acorn House, Arcola Theatre, and Calverts as examples of what a green job can be.

Oh No Its Another Another U-turn by the Government

Despite saying how much they hated PFI, the government is to press ahead with 61 PFI (private finance initiatives). The Chancellor when in opposition he denounced them as poor value for money.

The 61 projects worth a staggering £6.9 billion have been taken forward since the general election by the coalition Government.

The Labour Party loved throwing our money towards private companies, comitting future generations to many years of waste.

Darren Johnson, Trade and Industry spokesperson for the Green Party said today, “In opposition both Osborne and Vince Cable said that PFI was poor value for the taxpayer. The Chancellor described it as ‘a discredited model’ whilst the Business Secretary called it “a dishonest system of accounting, designed to hide taxpayers’ liabilities.” Now they are in Government, they intend to press ahead.”

The Green Party has likened PFI to a giant scheme of outdoor relief for private contractors, equivalent to buying your house on a credit card. Darren Johnson concluded, “We would end it.”

Confused Newsletters

Last week I wrote about counfused websites. Some local politicians have tried to present themselves just before an election as campaigning for an issue, when actually they may not have in the past. Today I am looking at newsletters. I am a candidate in the local elections in Bulmersh and Whitegates, but this year I have not done my own, just this blog.

Starting with the LD, they offer a choice; they are 'working for you' while the Tories will 'cut services and increase charges'. Which will be a surprise to people who have seen LD support Tory cuts elsewhere, not to mention the fact that there are two other choices in this election (including me) that are not mentioned. If you read the fine print that admit they are comparing LD Town Council with Conservative borough council policies. Hmmm. They also claim the LD are cleaner greener and safer, I'm yet to be convinced that the party is greener than the Tories, though some individuals are. If people think thats all the choice there is no wonder they feel disenfranchised.

Next, yet another LD leaflet. It has a bar chart, and guess what, the Greens are not mentioned, clealry scared of us. So much for the claim to be 'community news'. I look forward to seeing who is giving them all this money to shower us in leaflets. They highlight the money lost to Iceland, not mentioning the LD councils that lost money to Iceland apparently like West Lindsey District Council and Somerset and Grimsby. Oops.

The Woodley COnservatives has a leaflet here, that says they are investing millions into Woodley, no mention of cuts at all. They have a go at the LD town council as making a loss though.

Labour have two leaflets, heavily featuring their candidate Kyriakos Flakkas. The local Woodley and Whitegates Banner has the headline dont let them break the NHS. Perhaps Labour see it as their job to privatise it.

The Woodley Baner headline is 'standing up to the Tories', it contains a short biography of Kyriakos Flakkas. It tells us he lived in Manchester, Bristol and London, which won't be of much interest to local people.

Few of these leaflets have anything positive to say, mostly focused on being mean to the Tories! I would like to know what alternative they have to offer,

Baby And Todler Market Toddler In Woodley 2 till 4

Theres a market this afternoon just up the road from me. Sounds good for baby clothes and some of the others tons of stuff they seem to need.

website:
://www.babyandchildrensmarket.co.uk
www.stallfinder.com/baby-childrens-market-woodley-i21301.html

Venue: Bulmershe Leisure Centre Address: Woodlands Avenue
Woodley County: Berkshire Postcode: RG5 3EU

Confused Local Election Stuff

Some local blogs and newsletters have been saying strange things.

Labour Cllr Chris Maskell tells us we are getting rid of some unloved fences and lamposts on the Oxford Road. He doesn't mention that they were installed under Labour administration and cost millions, what a huge waste of money. He manages not to thank the Tory/LibDem coalition for removing them.

A few days before he praises the council for resurfacing some roads, again not mentioning thats its the Tory/LibDem coalition that have done it, not Labour though they were in charge for many years.

He praises some anti Tesco action, not mentioning that he and his colleagues fully supported the new Tescos in Reading, leading to local shops closing down. Its only the Greens that have consistently opposed these giant supermarkets and supported smaller shops.

But dont think this is the only person who is confused.

Lib Dem Cllr Gareth Epps joins the growing criticism of Andrew Landsleys bill, though he is part of the coalition that allows it it exist.

Ex LibDem Cllr Warren Swaine lists how many local candidates each party is fielding.

(Labour) have 15 candidates and a piss-poor 4 of them actually live in the ward where they are standing. The Tories in fact have 6 candidates who live in their ward. Greens 7, Lib Dems 8. The Common Sense party are only fielding 6 candidates, but only one of them lives in the ward they want to represent.

Quite a few local blogs cover this subject, not sure how relevant it is. I have seen no evidence that living in a ward makes a candidate superior, though I think they should have a connection. For example in the last General Election I was selected for Reading West when I still lived in the consituency, years later when we finally had the election I had moved. Of course I could have stood down but there seemed to be no point, I still had many connections to the area and dont live that far away.

He mentiones by name 'Chris Maskell (Battle) lives in Norcot', to be fair they moved the boundary when he used to live in the ward, he still lives close to it. There are other reasons to vote (or not) for someone.

Its nice of Warren to mention the Greens, many others simply ignore the us, presumably they are scared.

LidDem Cllr Glenn Goodall mentions the 'botched Shinfield Road fiasco…', not mentioning that is was done under the LD/Tory coalition, though it was planned by Labour. I was surprised the Tory transport lead Cllr Richard Willis went ahead with it as the Tories campaigned heavily againsed trafffic lights schemes like this prefering mini roundabouts, hey ho.

He claims the LibDems have produced fairer taxes, made britain Greener and cleaned up politics. I'm still waiting for a single one of these things to happen.

Is this any clearer now? I doubt it. At election time the parties with money produce mountains of material, most of it rather fancilful to say the least. I prefer to stand on my record of year round campaigning. And at the moment I don't have the time or money to do much, except for this blog.


Image from here

UPDATE:
Local Tory current Cllr and still hopeful in Park ward Wazir Husseain writes about Green Bins. 'Should 77% of residents pay for a service they can’t and/or don’t use?' Its seems a clever idea, copied from Cameron; want to cut services, present it as though its for the benefir of the poorest. Unfortunately its hypocrisy, all their other policies have the poor subsidising the rich. With education, society benefits from having more graduates. In the case of Green bins, it costs less to process this than it would if residents were to chuck it in the landfill bins. So its a bad policy in economic terms as well as in Green terms, where eco behavior should be encouraged for the benefit of all.

No Confidence In Landsley

Nurses today voted that they had no confdence in Health Secretary Andrew Landsley.

He turned up at their conference but only met a small group. "Congress is going to interpret it as him not having the courage to speak to them" said Peter Carter RCN general secretary.

After months of this policy being under attack, the government said last week it would pause for reflection and run another consultation, even though the bill underpinning the changes has already started progressing through Parliament.

Another embarasment from the Government, U turn soon please.

Incidentally in a hospital recently I saw Landsley appear on the TV screens by the beds (a service that costs about £5 a day). He appeared to be advertising the service, Hospedia. I have yet to find any reference to this however.

Tree Cathedral

There is a Woodland near Whipsnade Dunstable that has been planted in the shape of a Cathedral. It was done by two men in memory of friends who didnt return from World War One.

On the internet I saw some pictures of what looked like a wedding, and thought what a good idea. Its now owned by the national trust but doesnt have a proper website. To find out anything you have to call the trustees. They wont alow weddings or any ceremony they feel is not appropriate, I assume they mean whitches or druids. You can have a wedding blessing but I'm not sure what that is.

In this day and age you can get married skydiving, underwater, pretty much anywhere. Or so I thought.

I went at the weekend to have a look, and was almost ran over by some dogs. The floor was unfortunatly covered in dogshit. So more than one reason not to have a wedding there. What a shame, a wonderful place undersold and poorly looked after.

Tree Cathedral,
Bedfordshire LU6 2LL
Telephone: 01582 872406
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-whipsnadetreecathedral

True Cost Of Racing

Like much of the country I saw some of the Grand National coverage yesterday. And like many I joined in the sweepstake at work.

But if two of the 40 horses are going to die I want nothing to do with it. Thats too high a price for "entertainment".

RIP Ornais and Dooney’s Gate. Thats enough death at the races

"the more education people get, the more difficult they are to manage"

A Tory MP once said:
"the more education people get, the more difficult they are to manage".

Is this why libraries re closing and only the wealthy will be able to afford further education?
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Llibrary.htm

Education shpuld be free for all, its to the benefit of society. We are the poorer in more than one sence as the result of current policy.

Meanwhile ministers keep complsining when univerversities say they will charge the full £9000 a year; ie when they follow government policies. This is because we will have to pay more out in loans than they budgeted for. Opps.

Clearly a case for more education, not more ignorance.

Clegg Internship Gaff

The incleasingly gaff prone Clegg was forced to admit it was "wrong" that his own career had been boosted by his dads connections when he was starting out. His father got him an internsip at a bank and his first job in politics.

This was revealed while the deputy prime minister was announcing a drive to end unpaid internships. Oops.

Internships are indeed a way that social mobility has been reduced, only the wealthy can afford for their children to do this.

In some respects we are a meritocracy, where people are judged on their own talent not who their parents know. But there are too many cases where this is not happening.

There has long been suspicions that Cameron was given a job at Tory central office after a phone call from a relative in the palace.

Cutting benefits for the poorest in society while the richest avoid tax with loopholes will only make it worse. Labour were delighted that the rich got richer so they are no alternative.

The Greens support the equality trust who have done important research on this. Its to societes benefit that we are more equal.

government rejects sustainable transport plan

The "greenest government ever" yet again rejects a plan to reduce emissions. Last week as well as watering down plans for zero energy homes, they also rejected an EU plan for sustainable transport.

The European Commission said phasing out "conventionally fuelled" cars from urban areas would cut reliance on oil and help cut carbon emissions by 60% by 2050.

"We are all paying the price for a transport policy that's been heading in the wrong direction for far too long," Richard Dyer Friends of the Earth's transport director, said. "Phasing out cars that run on fossil fuels from cities is a good way to kick-start action but
despite these headline-grabbing proposals the emission reduction targets in the plan lack ambition," he added.


Transport Secretary Baker in response said somrthing boring about square bananas, what a nana. He may not care but due to peak oil by 2050 fuel prices will be so expensive most people will not be able to afford cars. We need a plan for future gernerations, not a nana in charge.


www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12879566

greenconstructionuk.wordpress.com/2011/04/02/budget-shock-zero-energy-homes-watered-down/