Alan's Green Thoughts

As you should be aware now, the threat of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership still lingers over Europe and thus over the UK (the equally dangerous Trans-Pacific Partnership looms over the USA and several other nations also, despite opposition from many US politicians particularly with regard to the 'Fast Track' clause), especially with its proposed investor-state dispute settlement clause which allows corporations (especially multinational corporations) to sue governments for lost profits or lost future profits, in international tribunals which are clearly stacked in favour of corporations. Here are some key examples of just how dangerous investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms are to nations: Vattenfall, a Swedish nuclear energy company, is suing Germany for lost future profits over its correct and safe decision to phase out nuclear power and decommission existing nuclear power plants on safety grounds; the Fukushima disaster and its aftereffects has h...

It has been reported that Conservative Party Chairman Grant Shapps, MP for Welwyn Hatfield (the seat I hope to contest in 2015), has seriously considered the request of Conservative MP Robert Halfon, who represents Harlow and unlike most Conservative MPs has skilled working-class roots, to rebrand the Conservative Party as the 'Worker's Party' to try and de-toxify its privileged image, and to replace its oak tree logo with a ladder. To give you an idea of how hypocritic and disgraceful this rebranding attempt is, here are many examples of the damage the Conservative Party, helped by the treacherous Liberal Democrats, is doing to workers in the UK. For example, they have throughout 2010-14: -cut legal aid for employment cases completely,and many other things for that matter -required people to pay excessive upfront charges to employment tribunals, which will be higher in unfair dismissal cases. Many working people cannot afford these new upfront charges. -slashed imp...

Ladies and gentlemen, it is now known that Yulia Tymoshenko has been officially freed from imprisonment, and that thankfully Viktor Yanukovych was by a significant majority removed from his post by Ukrainian MPs. It has not yet been confirmed when exactly this year new presidential elections will take place, on that front.  As for the floods, it is clear that even the Met Office now believes that artificial climate change is a major factor in the recent British floods, and thankfully so do over half of the British population, which is increasingly turning against our rotten coalition in many different ways. It has also been exposed that the burning of moorland-for the wealthy elite's old pastime of game bird rearing and shooting-contributes to greater flooding in valleys, inside and outside of Yorkshire; the disregard for the environment by the wealthy minority unfairly dominating our society is clearly responsible for the extensive damage the floods have done and it is sadly not...

The result of the only local by-election from yesterday featuring a Green candidate was as follows: Lab 1201 (41.7%), Plaid Cymru 972 (33.7%), Con 381 (13.2%), Green 148 (5.1%), TUSC 101 (3.5%), Lib Dem 80 (2.8%). In 2012, Cardiff Green Party had performed well, particularly in Cathays where it was close to winning council seats under the help of former Young Greens co-chair Sam Coates (now a county councillor in Oxfordshire). It is rather unfortunate that much of Cardiff Green Party's activity has ceased, given Plaid Cymru's low potential in Cardiff and in much of the eastern parts of Wales, especially Monmouthshire. This decline in activity, as well as Labour's bad deeds on Cardiff City Council, and also Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood's ecosocialist stance which can attract Green voters, helped Plaid Cymru come within a good distance of being able to win a seat in this ward next time around. As for the other by-election in Birstall in the district of Charnwood, ...

Ladies and gentlemen, if you came to any of the anti-ATOS demonstrations today that occurred across Britain, thank you for coming and showing solidarity. I am pleased to say that in particular the main demonstration near ATOS' headquarters in Regent's Place, Camden, London, which I and several London Green Party members attended, had a good turnout and we were able to symbolise our solidarity with the friends and relatives of the thousands of people whose deaths are attributable to ATOS' actions. Bolsover's Labour MP, Dennis Skinner, and Green Party leader Natalie Bennett both spoke out against the damage ATOS and Iain Duncan Smith have done to our nation and spoke of how a fairer alternative to help people with disabilities is needed. Simply ending ATOS' contract will not solve the current problem-the entire system of Work Capability Assessments must be scrapped and a fairer, more honest system of helping people with disabilities and/or mental health problems g...

Ladies and gentlemen, I call on you all tomorrow, if you can make it, to come to your nearest demonstration against ATOS, the company responsible for wrongly declaring thousands of people with disabilities 'fit to work' and thus responsible for thousands of deaths since January 2011 (estimates are >20,000 ATOS-attributed deaths at this time of writing), in protest of its grievous crimes against people with disabilities and mental health problems. I particularly hope that as many of my fellow Greens as possible can turn out , because the Green Party has rightly condemned ATOS' cruel, flawed and inconsiderate assessments from the start. To find your nearest demonstration, please go to this link: http://ukrebellioncom.ipage.com/atosdemo/  (list of locations of anti-ATOS demonstrations on right of page) It has also been reported that ATOS could have its contract revoked after a damning report on the way it has conducted Work Capability Assessments. This will not be nearl...

I have been able to obtain useful polling information about many European countries specifically for European Parliament elections coming up in just three months' time. Here is how we (and the left, by which I mean members of the European Left group) are performing at the moment by nation (note that some of this polling information may be from January 2014 and not February 2014): Austria: Greens 14%; KPO (Communist): 1-2%? Belgium: Green/Ecolo: 8.4%/11.4%; Workers' Party of Belgium: 2.7%/6.7%. France: Europe Ecologie-Les Verts: 9% (I hope they now regret working with Francois Hollande's 'Socialist Party'!), Front de Gauche: 9%. Germany: Greens 10%, Die Linke 10%. Greece: Ecologist Greens: 2-3%?, SYRIZA 25.4% (which on current ratings will give them seven more Greek European Parliament seats than in 2009 :) ) Italy: Left Ecology Freedom: 2.4%; Tspiras List: ?? Netherlands: GroenLinks (not that left-wing at all despite its name!): 3.7%, Socialist Party ( actua...

Today, some of my Green colleagues from Islington, London, went over to Mount Pleasant to hold a demonstration against the numerous problems almost all Londoners (but the very rich) face regarding housing. As the Crumbs for London group says, two-thirds of all houses or flats in London are bought up either by overseas investors who are only interested in making profits (which explains why many good houses in London have been left empty) or by private leaseholders demanding extortionate rents, which in addition to increased gentrification will soon cause many parts of London to become ghettoised. The majority of Londoners are left fighting over the remaining third of homes, and house prices are rising several times faster than the average wage, especially in Inner London (the boroughs that were in London prior to 1965). Many other problems with housing affect London significantly but also all of Britain as well. The lack of social housing across the nation, which is a direct result ...

In case you have been busy, the result of the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election of 13 February 2014 was as follows: John Bickley, UKIP, 4,301 (18.0%, +14.5%) Captain Chaplington-Smythe, Monster Raving Loony, 288 (1.2%)   Reverand Daniel Critchlow, Conservative, 3,479 (14.3%, -11.0%) Mary Di Mauro, Liberal Democrats, 1,176 (4.9%, -17.4%) Michael Kane, Labour, 13,261 (55.3%, +11.2%) Edward O'Sullivan, BNP, 708 (3.0%, -0.9%) Nigel Woodcock, Green, 748 (3.1%) As we all predicted, Mike Kane won for Labour, despite his exposure of being part of Labour's right-wing Progress Faction, which during the by-election campaign was fined heavily for accepting dodgy donations. UKIP may have come second, but they had to work hard to achieve that, as metropolitan areas like Manchester have not shown themselves to be as friendly towards UKIP as rural and semi-urban areas (market towns,basically) have been. UKIP's racist nature is now well known across Britain, as ther...

Ladies and gentlemen, I have spoken before on the importance of protecting the Arctic Ocean particularly from oil and gas companies. It is clear that an international treaty needs to be made on the Arctic Ocean, similar to existing treaties on the Antarctic ice sheet (which for example ban military activity of any type occurring there) in order to protect it, indigenous communities living near the Arctic Ocean, and ultimately all of us. This year, I am pushing for the Green Party to have a clear and firm policy on how we should all protect the Arctic Ocean, and I hope other Green Parties from across the world will implement similar policies if they do not already have them. The threats to the Arctic Ocean and major ice sheets in general are some of the greatest threats the world is facing this century-and we need to act on it as soon as possible to avoid the potentially devastating consequences of rising sea levels that will result from melting ice caps and resulting stream shifts. ...

Ladies and gentlemen, the story of severe flooding in the South West (and to some extent the South East) has been occuring for weeks now, with the consequences of thousands of people evacuated, railway lines being rendered inoperable, and weakened flood defences unable to deal with the waves, and the latest news item of Somerset man Sam Notaro's home about to go under despite his best efforts at creating a flood defence of mud and clay around it. Despite this, the coalition are as usual failing to respond to the UK's environmental needs and are still on course to do more damage, thanks to their failure to even sack Owen Paterson, the worst Environment Secretary Britain has ever known. It is once again clear that the neoliberal capitalist system is to blame for allowing these floods to cause so much damage, as prominent left-wing activist Lindsey German pointed out earlier. The cuts and damage to important infrastructure (via privatisations and other methods) in the UK that ...

Last night, I went to one of the open debates of the Federation of Young European Greens (FYEG) seminar on how to get young people more involved in politics. (Quite a few people from more liberal sections of Labour also attended.) I expressed a particular interest because not only am I a Young Green, but also a Young Green who has a disability and who is passionate about countering the attacks on people with disabilities by the coalition government-especially via Iain Duncan Smith and Esther McVey, his partner-in-crime-and also much of the mainstream media. Disability hate crime has been rising in many areas since the ConDems first took power, as a direct result of their austerity rhetoric and disregard for our society's most vulnerable people. As Mahtma Gandhi once said, 'you can judge a government by the way it treats society's most vulnerable.' As I have experienced and expressed before I joined the Green Party in 2012, the voices in particular of young people on...

In case you missed it, the results from the Sheffield local by-election (the only one of this week to feature a Green candidate) are as follows: Sheffield, Arburthorne: Lab 1398 (52.2%), UKIP 482 (18.8%), Con 213 (8.0%), TUSC 204 (7.6%), Lib Dem 161 (6.0%), Green 143 (5.3%), English Democrats 75 (2.8%). Most notable about this by-election is the significant drop in Labour's share, partly caused by UKIP and also by TUSC, which in local by-elections two or three months ago had been performing considerably worse. I am also sure they bear responsibility for the slight loss in our vote share. Interestingly, Left Unity, which sprung up just over two months ago, have not as far as I know fielded any candidates for upcoming local by-elections, but I hear they are thankfully supporting us in the North West for this year's European elections. Speaking of by-elections, I will be keeping a close eye on news on the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election, whose polling day is less than ...

Like many Greens within the United Kingdom, I wish to give my support to those underground workers who are striking against Boris Johnson's foolish and inconsiderate plans to close ticket offices throughout the London Underground system.  I will also give my support to UCU lecturers who are striking for fairer pay and conditions, and against the greed of university vice-chancellors. I ampleased to say this includes the UCU branch of the University of Hertfordshire, where I study. Regards, Alan.

Today marks another anniversary of the historical Great Reform Act of 1832, one of the first ever steps taken towards fair democracy in Britain.  As a result, a 'Bite the Ballot' initiative for National Voter Registration Day is spreading across Britain, encouraging young people and first-time voters to register to vote and then vote when the day comes, which is particularly important because the coalition government that hopefully will be voted out next year is mistreating young people particularly badly, knowing that young people are the least likely to vote in elections.  The Electoral Reform Society has just revealed that a quarter of people aged 18-25 have never registered to vote in their lives. One main problem we now face is that individual voter registration will now come into force, meaning that young people,especially students and those who move frequently, will find it difficult to register to vote in the constituency or local authority area they live in-yet...

I see love so Green and Verdant: (can be sung to the tune of 'Falling In Love Again') My dearest love, My beautiful white dove, I see love so green and verdant. And I do know, Within this natural glow, Our love shall be so radiant. Chorus I want to dance with you Like moths around bright light, As love looks luminescent Within this morning light, Once I was lost, Wandering and in despair, Now that you are here, I see love so verdant, That nothing now can even compare. Chorus I want to dance 'round you Like moths around bright light, As love looks luminescent Within this morning light. Let us be together, Like birds of a feather, Even in these hard years, Of suffering, strife, and fear, I can give love so green Like no other thing here.