Alan's Green Thoughts

Earlier this week, a jury at the inquest into the Hillsborough Stadium disaster of 1989, which resulted in the tragic deaths of 96 people (95 of them fans of Liverpool FC, who were playing against Sheffield FC), concluded that those 96 people were unlawfully killed and that police failures were entirely responsible for their preventable deaths. It took 27 years to achieve such a verdict, due to the cover-ups, smears, vilifications of innocent people and falsifications of statements by the police in conjunction with a compliant and prejudiced media. Nevertheless, this is one of the biggest victories of the people against abuses and misues of power by police, which frequently still go unpunished today. After all, in the public's eye, police forces are supposed to protect the safety of the people and uphold the law as passed by Parliament and elected MPs, rather than abuse their position of power to falsely accuse innocent people of immoral actions and cover up their ...

Amidst all the campaigning that is occurring in British elections, it is time to give analysis on elections that have occurred recently in the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. In Saskatchewan's elections, which occurred two weeks earlier on 5th April, the Saskatchewan Party, allied to the Canadian Conservatives, managed to increase their seat total by 2, partly due to boundary changes giving Saskatchewan's Legislative Assembly three extra ridings from this year. Another reason was despite the fact that only six months ago, their Conservative affiliates had suffered a resounding defeat to the Liberals, they were able to capitalise on their only main competitor, the New Democratic Party, being in disarray nationally and regionally after what amounted to a vote of no confidence in Thomas Mulcair (the federal NDP leader) was successfully called for by NDP members. Even though the NDP captured two seats from the Saskatchewan Party, Prince Albert Northcote and Regin...

Recently, Rupert Read claimed in the Green European Journal that we should spoil our ballot papers when we come to cast our votes in the EU referendum on 23rd June, or not vote at all: http://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/voteneither-how-you-can-help-both-sides-to-lose-this-pointless-referendum/#comment-152475 I believe this notion to be an incorrect argument-here is why: 1. Spoiling your ballot paper or boycotting votes achieves nothing. In elections and referendums, whatever the choice, you should always vote even if the best choice is not always available, so that you can make your voice heard. All spoiling ballot papers actually does is waste time, and boycotting votes is just as ineffective in practice. I instead advise that if you have a right to vote in elections, you should use it to achieve what you believe in or at least the best possible outcome. 2. We can make a difference in the EU membership referendum. It is true that Cameron's planned negotiations over Brit...

The results of yesterday's local by-elections were as follows (all were in local authorities not scheduled to have elections this year): Cornwall UA, Menheniot: Conservative 532 (40.5%, +2.5%), Liberal Democrats 472 (35.9%, +11.6%), UKIP 177 (13.5%, -17.7%), Labour 67 (5.1%), Green 65 (5.0%). Cornwall UA, Wadebridge West: Lib Dem 604 (43.5%, +19.2%), Con 356 (25.6%, -39.9%), Lab 222 (16.0%, +5.8%), Independent 111 (8.0%), Green 95 (6.8%). Taunton DC, Halicorn: Lib Dem 389 (43.0%, +2.6%), Con 222 (24.6%, -10.9%), Lab 133 (14.7%), UKIP 118 (13.1%), Green 42 (4.6%, -19.5%). Our poor result in Taunton can be explained by the fact that only the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, and Greens contested that ward in 2015; both Labour and UKIP contested it this time and won over a lot of 'protest votes' although this did not stop the Lib Dems increasing their majority in that by-election. The importance of personal votes was reinforced in Cornwall's by-election, where the ...

There have recently been calls for David Cameron, Britain's Prime Minister, to resign over the Panama Papers scandal (which prompted the resignation of Icelandic PM Sigundmur Gunnlaugsson) which has revealed that he and his family (and many contemporaries of his) have stashed billions of pounds' worth of funds in offshore tax havens, despite claiming that the government will be committed to 'tackling tax avoidance'. I believe these calls to be legitimate, given how we have all been deceived and that he has broken the trust of British people time and time again just so he can aid a minority of wealthy donors to the Conservative Party and businesses that many Conservative MPs are involved in directly and indirectly. However, it is clear that David Cameron's resignation will not be enough- this problem is international and spreads deeply. Also, when Icelandic protestors called for their entire government to step down, a no-confidence motion by the Pirate Party failed...

The race is now firmly on in the UK's 2016 elections-for the Scottish Parliament, Northern Irish Assembly, Welsh Assembly, London Assembly, Mayor of London, Police and Crime Commissioners, and lots of English councils all around the country. I am particularly pleased to say that the Green Party be standing in every ward in the following council areas: Amber Valley Birmingham Bristol Bury Calder Valley Cambridge Cannock Chase Cheltenham Colchester Coventry Exeter Hastings Leeds Liverpool Maidstone Mole Valley Norwich North Hertfordshire Oxford Reading Salford Sheffield Stockport Solihull South Lakeland Southampton Southend-on-Sea Trafford Watford West Oxfordshire Worcester Worthing There will also be many, many more Green Party candidates in other councils in England. We are also standing in the other three mayoral elections, those of Bristol, Liverpool, and Salford, where the Green Party candidates are respectively Tony Dyer, ...

Readers, it is World Autism Acceptance Day today, and to celebrate especially the novel and inventive ways of thinking used by autistic people past and present, diagnosed and undiagnosed, here is my poem: Diverse Thinking: You can't immediately see my differences So you just expect me to think and act the same way Even though just by neurological circumstances My mind was moulded from a different clay I don't always need to see it that way Just because everyone else happens to Often you need to think outside the box And without looking to people know what you should do Then you find out I have autism And immediately think I can't think properly My ideas are somehow deviant and weird to you Just because they don't match your view of 'normally' I might not necessarily immediately know Where Sally would look for her marbles But in your attempts to make me see your perspective You're also clearly not without your foibles. Remember,the min...

Readers, the results of by-elections from yesterday that featured Green Party candidates were as follows: Richmondshire DC, Richmond Central: Richmondshire Independents 236 (35.0%), Liberal Democrats 205 (30.4%, -18.3%), Conservative 156 (21.3%, -6.6%), Green 77 (11.4%, -10.2%). Dundee UA, Maryfield: (1st preference votes) SNP 1383 (49.5%, -1.3%), Labour 634 (22.7%, -13.7%), Conservative 294 (10.5%, +3.3%), TUSC 142 (5.1%, +3.3%), Green 116 (4.1%), Liberal Democrats 85 (3.0%, -0.7%), Independent 73 (2.6%), UKIP 69 (2.5%). With five weeks remaining until the 2016 elections in the UK, it is clear the SNP will still be on course to maintain its outright majority in the Scottish Parliament, possibly even if my Scottish Green colleagues manage their best year ever. The result in Richmondshire can be attributed to the fact that the local Liberal Democrats fielded someone who lived some distance from Richmond town itself (the Richmond in Yorkshire, not the Richmond in London!) and thi...