Alan's Green Thoughts

Former veteran BBC Radio 2 presenter and DJ, Sir Terry Wogan, sadly died earlier today. I first heard the news whilst at Sunday Mass. Throughout his 50 years in broadcasting both in Ireland and Britain, Sir Terry was known for hosting such things as Children In Need, Wake Up Wogan, and even Eurovision on occasions (these were before I was born, however). Having listened to Wake Up Wogan and that once-famous jingle as a child, I will always remember his smooth and warm presenting style and the various songs from all eras that were played on Radio 2 during his time on air. And so, farewell-BBC radio just will not be the same without him. In memory of Michael Terence Wogan, broadcaster and presenter, born 3 August 1938, who departed this life on 31 January 2016, aged 77 years.

Earlier today, at Willesden Magistrates' Court in the London Borough of Brent, 13 protestors from the Plane Stupid activist group, which campaigns against airport expansion, were found guilty of 'aggravated trespass', despite using the defence of necessity. I believe, however, that taking peaceful action against airport expansion and increasing aircraft emissions will be increasingly important for our own sake, and thus believe necessity is a valid defence here, given how pollution causes thousands of early deaths in Greater London alone and aviation's role in accelerating artificial climate change. What is also important is that unnecessary expansions are curbed and that people are encouraged towards other forms of transport when possible.

Readers, the results of yesterday's local by-elections featuring Green Party candidates were as follows: St Helens MBC, Thatto Heath: Labour 964 (71.1%, -3.8%), UKIP 182 (13.4%),Conservative 147 (10.8%, +3.7%), Green 62 (4.6%, -3.0%). All changes are since 2012. Southwark LBC, Faraday: Lab 1072 (60.9%, -0.6%), Liberal Democrats 255 (14.7%, +8.5%), Green 138 (7.8%, -3.8%), Con 117 (6.6%, -2.8%), UKIP 93 (5.3%), Independent (Dean Porter) 47 (2.7%), All People's Party 38 (2.2%, -4.5%). Thanet DC, Newington: Lab 288 (37.7%, +1.3%), UKIP 229 (30.0%, -14.2%), Con 156 (20.4%, +0.9%), Independent (Alan Hodder) 49 (6.4%), Green 20 (2.6%), Lib Dem 12 (1.6%), Independent (Graham Birchall) 10 (1.3%). Labour gain from UKIP. South Lanarkshire UA, Hamilton North & East (1st preference votes): SNP 1089 (42.9%, +2.4%), Lab 855 (33.6%, -9.4%), Con 469 (18.5%, +8.4%), Green 83 (3.3%, +0.1%), Lib Dem 45 (1.8%). SNP elected at stage 5; changes are since 2012. Not a particularly good...

Notable coverage of divisions within the Labour Party has now also extended to which critics of Jeremy Corbyn face losing their seats in the next round of major boundary changes(as documented by The Independent), which will be the heaviest shake-up of United Kingdom parliamentary constituencies since the 1983 general election. Theirs will not be the only constituencies redrawn or broken up completely, however. Here is a list of other notable MPs who face losing their seats or a much more difficult challenge if and when these boundary changes go through: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru, Arfon): Welsh constituencies will be subject to the most substantial redrawing due to Wales now being subject to the same electoral quota used for England and Scotland as well-no extant Welsh seat, not even Ynys Mon, will survive unaltered and many will effectively disappear. Most of Arfon will likely be joined with Dwyfor Meirionydd in 2020, leaving Bangor to join Ynys Mon as a new constituency. Pla...

The first local by-election of 2016 where there was a Green candidate saw the following result: Cornwall UA, Launceston Central: Liberal Democrats 515 (63.0%, -7.0%), Conservative 226 (27.6%, +10.4%), Green 65 (7.9%), Christian Peoples Alliance 12 (1.5%). Quite a decent start to the year for us, particularly given the generally low turnout of local by-elections in the cold month of January and given that we did not stand in this ward in the last elections for Cornwall Council in 2013. The swing from the Liberal Democrats to the Conservatives was helped by the absence of a UKIP or a Labour candidate, and the good personal vote of the previous Lib Dem councillor, which matters strongly in the South West. It is not surprising the Christian Peoples Alliance polled so poorly-they are unknown in Cornwall and their candidate, John Allman, is a perennial candidate with a poor track record; he polled 52 votes in the whole of the North Cornwall constituency in which Launceston resides in la...

It has been reported that an amendment to the Housing Bill which would have required homes to be fit for human habitation has been defeated by the Conservatives (Ayes: 219, Nos: 312; the only non-Conservative MPs to vote against were UKIP's Douglas Carswell and the UUP's Danny Kinahan and Tom Elliott); 73 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment are landlords who would be affected by this legislation. This amendment would update an existing law whose terms have not been updated since 1957, when the limits specified were actually significant sums of money. This outdated law means that currently homes are only subject to being required to be fit for human habitation if their annual rent is less than £80 in London and £52 elsewhere-but due to the substantial inflation that has happened since 1957, especially during the 1970s, this sum would not even cover rent for a week let alone a year. And London in particular has large numbers of tiny homes barely the...

There has been much speculation about the results of the reshuffle of Jeremy Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet, which resulted in the sacking of Michael Dugher as Shadow Minister for Culture, and also Pat McFadden. This in turn caused the resignations of Kevan Jones, Stephen Doughty, and Jonathan Reynolds from the Shadow Cabinet in protest at these two sackings. It must be pointed out that the Conservatives have been no better than Labour, and in fact often worse, in terms of cabinet reshuffling or choice of cabinet ministers. In particular, Michael Gove's incompetence on so many levels means he has no business being in the cabinet at all, let alone as Justice Secretary (and I thought before that appointment Chris Grayling was the worst Justice Secretary Britain has had in living memory). Liz Truss, the current Environment Secretary, has no more respect for the environment than Owen Paterson ever did and the two worst Conservatives in the cabinet by far, Georg...

Recently, the next round of rail fare rises was announced-a surprisingly low 1.1% increase given that many fare rises have been considerably above inflation and thus above pay rises. However, for regular commuters like myself, this small fare rise will have a real impact, particularly when the quality of our privatised railway network has been declining in spite of often above inflation rail fare rises over the years. Another major problem is that these fare rises are occurring everywhere in Britain despite the gulf of public transport investment between Greater London and elsewhere, particularly in the north of England where many railway lines that were closed in the past (and not just in the infamous Beeching Axe) have not been replaced or are only covered by heritage railways which do not operate year-round and do not cover all the line and stations they were designed to replace. The fare rises generally do not go towards railway investment but in practice to the pockets ...

Hello, readers, and welcome to 2016. So, what is coming up this year? First of all, there is the important race to be the new Mayor of London in May, and also the London Assembly election alongside it. I wish the Green Party candidate for Mayor of London, Sian Berry, all the best in her campaigns. Secondly, there is also the Scottish Parliamentary election and the Welsh Assembly election, where my Green colleagues stand to make historic strides. Thirdly, there are also local elections in England which will be the first test for five-party politics within the UK outside of a general election, which indirectly boosts local election turnout significantly. Fourthly, it has been indicated that a crucial referendum on Britain's EU membership will likely take place sometime in 2016, although not on the same day as local elections. I maintain my neutral yet informative stance on this issue and seek to promote it should it be confirmed as happening this year. Finally, there will...