Alan's Green Thoughts

Readers, as you may know, lecturers and university staff of UCU and UNISON are striking over the pay freezes they have suffered over the last 5 years whilst inflation is still occurring. This means in real terms, their pay has taken a 13% cut. Meanwhile, vice-chancellors and university managers are awarding themselves salary increases to their already generous pay they clearly do not deserve, especially given the current recession. Therefore, I hope that you will all support those who are on strike today, especially if you are a student yourself. Alan.

Readers, you may of course know that if you track recent UK Parliamentary by-elections, the Monster Raving Loony Party leader, Alan 'Howling Laud' Hope, makes a frequent appearance, or at least someone from this most famous of joke parties. David 'Screaming Lord' Sutch also of course did this until 1997 (he committed suicide in 1999 and no Parliamentary by-elections at all occurred in 1998). There have, however, been many perennial candidates in the last 35 years or so, who have been forgotten but should be noted nevertheless. It is sometimes hard not to admire their stubborn yet hopeless determination to represent their beliefs in the House of Commons, is it not? These candidates (who have stood for parliament at least 5 times apiece without success) notably include: Jitendra Bhardwaj, whose first by-election appearance notably came after his conviction of assaulting a police officer outside the House of Commons in 1982 (although he contested Luton in the 1979 ge...

Today, the St. Jude's Day Storm, named after the patron saint of lost causes, battered much of the south of England, killing 4 people in England (and 9 across Northern Europe), cutting power from 600,000 homes, causing traffic chaos, and effectively shutting down many rail services across the south and in London.  Although this may not be on the scale of the infamous Great Storm of 1987, it was forecast some time in advance-unusual for a storm this powerful.   Not so long ago, Hurricane Sandy hit New York, causing of course more severe damage-in fact the damage it dealt was surpassed only by the infamous Hurricane Katrina. As artificial climate change exerts a greater effect on our atmosphere and our planet, I believe that these storms could hit temperate areas like ours and much of Europe much more frequently, and with more damage as well. This is because artificial climate change will not only increase the temperature of our atmosphere, it will destabilise weather...

Regarding the Young Greens of England and Wales Convention of 2013, if any of you were there, I am glad that the following people were duly elected to serve on the Young Greens Executive: Clifford Fleming (Male Co-Chair) Siobhan MacMahon (Female Co-Chair) Laura Shepherd Josiah Mortimer Christopher 'Chris' Jarvis Fiona Costello Paul Cohen Thomas 'Thom' French  I ,Alan, and the rest of the Young Greens of England and Wales wish you the best of luck.

The results from the snap Czech Republic election are now in, and are quite startling to many,including myself admittedly. One notable thing is that the Czech Green Party failed to return to the legislature, sadly, despite their previous success and comeback in the Czech local elections last year.  The Czech Pirate Party ran into a firewall, so to speak, and also failed to get enough votes to enter the Czech legislature, despite a signifcant increase in vote share from 0.8% to 2.66%. As predicted for a long time, the Czech Social Democrats topped the poll. However, the surprise is that they have actually lost seats despite receiving the highest vote share (which turned out to be only 20.45%)-their seats were reduced to 50 from 56. The Communists of Bohemia and Moravia also did not do as well as I hoped, as they only secured an extra 7 seats, giving them 33 in total-but thanks to the great fall of the previous governing parties, the Communists nevertheless came third. The ...

Due to a vote of no confidence being passed in the Czech Parliament over scandals by the current government (a Civic Democratic-TOP 09 coalition, broadly equivalent to Britain's Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government) the electorate of the Czech Republic will go/have gone to the polls today.  The current coalition there is likely to lose heavily, according to current opinion polls in the Czech Republic. I hope the Czech Greens can return to the Czech legislative assembly after losing their seats in 2010, although sadly it does not look like they will do that at present. There is still some good news though- the Communist (now socialist) Party of Bohemia and Moravia could get its best number of seats in the legislature since 1990-as socialism really needs to advance in Europe, I will likely be pleased with their result.  As I have said before, green economics is really only possible within a socialist context, so the Czech Greens need to move further left and conside...

The local by-election results from 24 October 2013 featuring Green candidates are as follows: Norfolk County Council, North Walsham East: LD 1044 (40.9%), UKIP 565 (22.1%), Labour 442 (17.3%), Conservative 359 (14.1%), Green 80 (3.1%), Ind 61 (2.4%). West Sussex County Council, Warnham and Rusper: Conservative 868 (58.3%), UKIP 335 (22.5%), Green 119 (8.0%), LD 103 (6.9%), Lab 65 (4.4%). Turnout in this by-election was a dismal 20%. Wigan Borough Council, Winstanley: Lab 746 (42.1%), UKIP 421 (23.7%), Community Action 326 (18.4%), Conservative 180 (10.1%), Green 55 (3.1%), Ind 27 (1.5%), LD 19 (1.1%). Wirral Borough Council, Upton: Lab 1954 (65.4%), Conservative 762 (25.5%), Green 143 (4.8%), LD 130 (4.3%). Dunfermline local by-election (1st preference votes): Lab 2552 (39.7%), SNP 2057 (32.0%), LD 1009 (15.7%),Conservative 450 (7.0%), Green 183 (2.8%), UKIP 183 (2.8%). Finally, the Holyrood Dunfermline by-election: Cara Hilton (Lab): 10275 (42.5%), Shirley-Anne Somerville ...

Earlier this year, trade talks between the European Union and the USA were started to create the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), otherwise known as the EU-US free trade agreement. This is designed to 'harmonise regulations' between the US and the EU. In reality, this 'free trade' agreement is the most dangerous corporate power grab ever to have been attempted, aside from the equally dangerous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The reason for this is because clauses of the agreement, which I hope the European Parliament will never approve, allow corporations, especially trans-national corporations, to sue governments over common-sense health and environmental regulations simply on the grounds that it will lead to 'loss of profit'. This means that governments across the EU and also in the USA will feel unable to pass new legislation (or worse, may even be pressured by corporations into repealing existing legislation) that is important t...

For some time now, I have been doing research of by-elections and general elections of the past in my spare time. I have also noticed how the deposit system, which the UK Electoral Commission says is to 'ensure only serious candidates stand for election' (and thus deter timewasters of the likes of the late Bill Boaks and the still living David Bishop) is not effective at deterring frivolous candidates at all. In the 1984 Chesterfield by-election, which was won by Tony Benn after he had lost his seat of Bristol South East in 1983, when the deposit required to stand in a Westminster election was just £150 (the percentage of votes needed to have it returned,though, was 12.5%), 17 candidates stood, 14 of them losing their deposit. Only 6 of them in fact even got more than 100 votes apiece. Partly because of this, and the fact that Margaret Thatcher faced 10 opponents in her seat of Finchley alone in 1983 (half got fewer than 100 votes apiece, and the Ecology (now Green) Party...

Over the past few years, I have heard about 'responsible capitalism', 'green capitalism', and related terms.They all point to the idea that it is possible to be environmentally friendly and still maintain a capitalist system where profits and growth continue to be possible despite environmentally protective controls. However, eco-capitalism is in fact impossible because of capitalism's fundamental and fatal flaws, which mean that capitalism cannot be trusted to preserve our environment or ourselves. All forms of capitalism are based principally on the idea that profit and growth should take precedence, overall, above other priorities. In fact, capitalism would not exist without growth, and therefore it will inevitably damage the planet and human society whatever it did. Also, for capitalism to keep continuing in our society ad infinitum, infinite resources and an infinite population are needed- neither an infinite population nor an infinite amount of resources e...

The dangerous Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Bill, which has received surprisingly little media attention compared to equally dangerous 'gagging law', somehow made it through a third reading in the House of Commons a few days ago, despite the excessively wide scope of the use of IPNAs (Injunctions to Prevent Nuisance and Annoyance) and PSPOs (Public Space Protection Orders) contained within the Bill, as well as clauses making it practically impossible, especially with recent cuts to legal aid, for innocent people who have been wrongly convicted to get their convictions quashed. The major issue with IPNAs is that they can be sought by local authorities and NHS trusts (in addition to the police), and can be used to prevent a specific person, even one who has never been charged let alone convicted of a crime, from engaging in behaviour which the authority considers 'likely to cause a public nuisance', which does not have an objective legal definition. This is ...

Yesterday, the Young Greens (the part of the Green Party that caters to those under the age of 30) published a report of the damning inequalities between the pay of Vice-Chancellors and senior staff at universities and the pay of most of their staff.  http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/pay-ratios-point-to-massive-inequality/2008207.article The lack of real university democracy is somewhat responsible for this. Across Great Britain, many courses are being cut unnecessarily by unelected and unaccountable Vice-Chancellors and senior managers, who not only often ignore the reasonable requests by democratic Student Unions to protect students' interests but in some cases repress student activism, as has been shown at the Universities of Sussex and London, and in an undemocratic decision by university managers at London colleges to close the University of London Union. Universities are supposed to be public institutions, dedicated to higher education and knowledge. Yet many ...

For those of you out there living in Dunfermline, Scotland, the Scottish Parliament by-election there is just 9 days away now. Zara Kitson's campaign video, which you should watch, explains well why you should vote for her on 24th October: http://zarakitson.org/2013/10/10/zaras-campaign-video/ Thank you, Alan.

In early July this year, in a university in South London, I met a group of people from the Republican Socialist Alliance, a few of whom I had seen at the first national people's assembly. They showed me this: http://www.agreementofthepeople.org/agreement.html It is clear in Britain that the current, 'sham democracy' situation we face must come to an end- but remember, we will have to fight for it and then strive to maintain a real democracy once we bring it. So I ask, what are your thoughts on the 'Agreement of the People' some of my friends have been talking about? Please post them. Regards, Alan.

Hello, I am Alan, sometimes known (at least online) as Lotus. I am a concerned green socialist from Hertfordshire who believes that in these tough economic times we face, action must be taken to reverse the tide of austerity and inequality. If you want daily or near-daily updates about democracy, human rights, green politics across Europe and elsewhere, and also good modern ideas for a sustainable economy and equal society, then please read my blog. Thank you for reading :)