Alan's Green Thoughts

We are almost at the end of the first year in what I term the "Cyberspace Age" and it has been one of the most chaotic years in recent memory. We are also seeing a further "digitisation of humanity" in this world of ours. Norway announced that it would turn off all FM stations, leaving only digital radio active, and Switzerland has stated it will follow suit. Britain is also considering this move once digital radio listeners reach 51% of total radio listeners. Social media is becoming more and more critical in politics and everyday life, and it has also helped fake news, notorious during the 2016 US Presidential election, spread more quickly before being debunked and thus able to influence far more people than last year. Social media is also leading to increased social isolation and could fragment society even further if obsessions with it are not curbed sufficiently; it is very useful and will continue to be but we must not become so attached to it as if it were ...

The Catalan general election of 2017, called on the orders of hardline unionist conservative Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy who is determined to stop Catalonian independence by nearly any means, produced a rather interesting and divided result. It is worth noting that the decisive vote for Catalonian independence was enhanced by anger at the heavy-handed means used by the Spanish Government to suppress it, especially by the police. At this election, however, nothing approaching such action was taken and it ran without major incident. The most striking thing is the realignment that took place on both the unionist and separatist sides of the divide in Catalonia's electorate. It was the pro-union Citizens' Party that topped the poll, winning as many as 37 seats and 25.4% of the vote, more than any of the individual pro-independence parties in Catalonia. A considerable proportion of their vote came from the increasingly unpopular People's Party (to whom Mariano belongs to), who los...

If you missed me on Employable Me last night, you can catch up on BBC iPlayer here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09k7wlj/employable-me-series-2-episode-4 The experience was a life-changing and eye-opening one, and I thank everyone who has seen it so far. I was inspired by an autistic acquaintance of mine who had appeared on the first series of Employable Me, and when the second series was making a casting call I applied, wishing to showcase my talents for political analysis that I have been developing since I started this blog four years ago. I was so pleased when I was accepted for the series, given that a few months prior I had failed to complete a graduate diploma in applied psychology and wanted to find a new path that was more suited to me in the long-term and more achievable for me than becoming a chartered psychologist. Even in undergraduate psychology I was very passionate about politics (and how psychology could be applied to it), but had never had the option t...

The results for the last set of local by-elections in Britain for this year are as follows: 07/12/17: Enfield LBC, Enfield Highway:  Labour 1619 (69.8%, +22.9%), Conservative 620 (26.7%, +9.2%), Green 79 (3.4%, -6.5%). [BNP and UKIP from 2014 did not stand] North Devon DC, Newport: Liberal Democrats 390 (38.8%, +9.0%), Conservative 373 (37.1%, -6.0%), Green 159 (15.8%, -11.3%), Labour 83 (8.3%). Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative. 13/12/17: Exeter BC, Newtown & St Leonards: Labour 1044 (54.6%, +5.3%), Conservative 512 (26.8%, +3.5%), Liberal Democrats 179 (9.4%, +1.7%), Green 137 (7.2%, -3.9%), UKIP 40 (2.1%, -3.3%). [Independence From Europe from 2016 did not stand] Waverley BC, Godalming Central & Ockford: Liberal Democrats 266 (37.8%), Conservative 246 (35.0%, -4.8%), Labour 151 (21.5%, -5.4%), Green 40 (5.7%).  Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative. [Something New and the Independent from 2015 did not stand]   14/12/17: City of London Cor...

China, Britain's biggest export market for scrap and other recyclable materials, has announced a blanket ban on plastic waste, a tightening of standards for industrial scrap, and intends to impose stricter standards on recyclable material in general after finding that much of the scrap sent to China's plants was "contaminated with dirty wastes or even hazardous wastes": https://www.greenpeace.org.uk/chinas-plastic-waste-ban/ Britain has sent 2,700,000 tonnes of scrap plastic to China and Hong Kong in the past five years-that is on average 540,000 tonnes per year. This reliance on exporting plastic abroad has meant a lack of British capacity to tackle processing of plastic waste, scrap metal and glass and has meant little has been done to tackle the problem of excessive plastic production, especially when our water is being damaged by microplastics and macroplastics (plastics visible to the naked eye, as opposed to microplastics which are not). "We've reli...

Counting has not quite finished officially for the Queensland state election of 2017, but the results are clear by now in what has been one of Australia's most nail-biting state elections ever. Despite the fact that Australia's closest answer to UKIP, Pauline Hanson's One Nation, was winning over many Liberal National and Labor voters, it was Labor under Annastacia Palaszczuk who emerged victorious managing to secure an overall majority with 47 seats, although with a one seat majority she will have to rely on crossbench support in practice. Their 1st preference vote also dropped to 35.5% although the Liberal Nationals were hit the hardest by One Nation. As many as 6 "crossbench" MLAs have been elected to the Queensland state parliament-3 Katter's Australian Party members, 1 One Nation member (Steve Andrew, the first person of South Sea Islander ancestry elected to a state parliament), Independent Sandy Bolton, and the Queensland state parliament's first ...

Readers, the results of local by-elections from 30/11/17 were as follows: Gosport BC, Bridgemary North: Liberal Democrats 644 (57.9%), Labour 255 (23.0%, -49.0%), Conservative 212 (19.1%, -8.9%). Liberal Democrat gain from Labour; all changes are since 2016. Maidstone BC, Maidstone North: Liberal Democrats 719 (51.4%, +20.0%), Conservative 364 (26.0%, -6.0%), Labour 270 (19.3%, +8.0%), Green 47 (3.4%, -2.1%). Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative; all changes are since 2015. Tandridge DC, Westway: Liberal Democrats 483 (53.5%, +17.6%), Conservative 239 (26.5%, -2.5%), Labour 118 (13.1%, -2.8%), UKIP 62 (6.9%, -12.2%). Torridge DC, Torrington: Liberal Democrats 701 (60.2%), Independent 180 (15.5%), Conservative 159 (13.6%, -6.2%), Green 76 (6.5%, -16.2%), UKIP 49 (4.2%, -17.0%). Liberal Democrat gain from UKIP. No-one can doubt that this week has been one of the best for the Liberal Democrats in terms of by-elections, since all of them were won by the Liberal Democrats with ...

Readers, the results of local by-elections in Britain from Thursday 23rd November 2017 were as follows: Cotswold DC, Grumbolds Ash & Avening: Conservative 420 (64.7%, -7.8%), Liberal Democrats 136 (21.0%, -7.6%), Labour 93 (14.3%). Dover BC, St Margaret's at Cliffe: Conservative 750 (70.5%,+19.2%), Labour 314 (29.5%, +7.3%). Herefordshire UA, Bishops Frome & Cradley: Green 471 (45.3%, +13.9%), Conservative 299 (28.8%, -39.8%), Liberal Democrats 251 (24.1%), Labour 19 (1.8%). Green gain from Conservative. Leicester UA, Eyres Monsell : Labour 556 (53.2%, +9.8%), Liberal Democrats 320 (30.6%, +23.6%), Conservative 170 (16.3%, +0.2%). Neath Port Talbot UA, Bryncoch South: Plaid Cymru 525 (49.5%, +3.3%), Labour 306 (28.8%, +5.1%), Conservative 105 (9.9%, -8.4%), Liberal Democrats 92 (8.7%, +3.0%), UKIP 33 (3.1%). Perth & Kinross UA, Perth City South: SNP 1780 (32.1%, +6.4%), Conservative 1734 (31.2%, +6.0%), Liberal Democrats 1597 (28.8%, -5.9%), Labour 314 (5.7%...

The Autumn 2017 Budget (note: it is nearly now winter) was released today by Phillip Hammond, with a particularly noted focus on promising to help first-time buyers who are increasingly shut out of the housing market, especially south of the River Thames and in Greater London. Despite these promises made in the budget, they fall flat for these five reasons: 1. Abolishing stamp duty does not get to the root of the problem and it will not be enough. House prices have risen extortionately in the last 20 years, especially south of the Watford Gap, and far beyond any reduction of stamp duty would ever accomplish. The average house price in many London boroughs is well above the £300,000 threshold (below which stamp duty would be abolished) which represents 15 years' salary (after income tax and National Insurance contributions) for an average worker in Britain. And more people earn less than average than above it! 2. Investment in a nationally maintained infrastructure for elect...

On Tuesday, Australia voted in favour of same-sex marriage by a margin of 61.6% to 38.4%, which was celebrated not only by Australians but by progressive people around the world, even if they did not identify as LGBTIQA+. However, as with a referendum on the same issue in Ireland in 2015, the divide between secular, urban communities and rural, more religious communities was very stark indeed. Several electorates with high proportions of residents born overseas also voted against, notably the division of Bruce, where over 50% of residents were born overseas, where nearly 50% were born in a non-English speaking country, and where over 50% of residents speak a language other than English at home. Bruce voted against same-sex marriage by a margin of 46.9% to 53.1%. It is not a safe electorate either-it is marginal (held by Labor) Of the 17 electorates which voted against same-sex marriage in that survey, the majority were Labor-held, and often very safely so (Kennedy was...

Readers, the results of British local by-elections from this week were as follows: Chiltern DC, Penn & Coleshill: Conservative 697 (80.6%, -19.4%), Liberal Democrats 168 (19.4%). NB: Conservatives were unopposed in this ward in 2015. Darlington UA, Mowden: Conservative 652 (60.9%, +6.6%), Labour 285 (26.6%, -10.4%), Liberal Democrats 111 (10.4%), Green 26 (2.1%, -6.6%). Darlington UA, Red Hill & Lingfield: Labour 249 (44.8%, -1.9%), Conservative 230 (41.4%, +12.4%), Independent (Kevin Brack)* 46 (8.3%), Green 20 (3.6%, -8.9%), Liberal Democrats 11 (2.0%, -9.9%). Eden DC, Penrith North: Liberal Democrats 422 (45.2%, +2.3%), Conservative 291 (31.2%,-0.8%), Labour 155 (16.6%, -8.5%), Green 65 (7.0%). Fylde BC, Staining & Weeton: Conservative 401 (73.0%, +8.4%), Labour 111 (20.2%, -15.1%), Liberal Democrats 37 (6.7%). Hartlepool UA, Victoria: Labour 479 (53.1%, +10.7%), UKIP 325 (36.0%, +12.7%), Conservative 98 (10.9%, -0.7%). All changes are since 2016. South Ho...

Readers, the results of British local by-elections from this week were as follows: Camden LBC, Gospel Oak: Labour 1144 (57.5, +9.5%), Liberal Democrats 510 (25.7%, +19.2%), Conservative 303 (15.2%, -1.1%), English Democrats 31 (1.6%). Fareham BC, Stubbington: Liberal Democrats 1185 (55.2%, +32.4%), Conservative 769 (35.8%, +6.1%), UKIP 117 (5.4%, -37.9%), Labour 76 (3.5%, -0.5%). Liberal Democrat gain from UKIP; all changes are since 2014. Flintshire UA, Buckley Bistre West: Labour 398 (53.9%, +10.5%), Independent (Hutchinson) 110 (14.9%), Independent (Teire) 86 (11.7%), Liberal Democrats 85 (11.5%, -26.8%), Conservative 59 (8.0%). High Peak DC, Limestone Peak: Conservative 261 (53.7%, +3.4%), Labour 133 (27.4%, +0.6%), Liberal Democrats 58 (11.9%), Green 34 (7.0%).   Wandsworth LBC, Thamesfield:  Conservative 1910 (48.9%, -1.1%), Labour 1101 (28.2%, +10.7%), Liberal Democrats 619 (15.9%, +6.3%), Green 275 (7.0%, -9.9%). The absence of a Green candidate in Gosp...

Readers, the results of British local by-elections of 2 November 2017 were as follows: Arun DC, Aldwick West: Liberal Democrats 719 (52.7%, +33.5%), Conservative 480 (35.2%, -13.3%), Labour 112 (8.2%), Green 54 (4.0%). Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative. Buckinghamshire CC, Beaconsfield: Conservative 1298 (81.3%, +11.1%), Liberal Democrats 299 (18.7%, +2.5%).   Copeland DC, Egremont South: Labour 354 (52.4%, +12.4%), Conservative 321 (47.6%, +20.1%). North Devon DC, Braunton East: Liberal Democrats 459 (37.1%, +3.0%), Green 387 (31.5%), Conservative 225 (18.2%, -17.5%), Labour 165 (13.3%, +6.3%). Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative. Sefton MBC, Duke's: Liberal Democrats 1680 (56.0%, +28.4%), Conservative 790 (26.3%, -9.4%), Labour 417 (13.9%, -2.3%), UKIP 69 (2.3%, -13.5%), Green 45 (1.5%, -3.1%). Liberal Democrat gain from Conservative; all changes are since 2015. South Buckinghamshire DC, Beaconsfield North: Conservative 441 (, Liberal Democrats...

The Icelandic parliamentary election of 2017 was widely predicted to bring in a record surge for the Left-Green Movement of Iceland, led by popular progressive Katrin Jakobsdottir. It was not quite to be, however. The Left-Green Movement lost considerable momentum just when they needed it before the end of the campaign, partly due to attack advertisements from the ruling conservative Independence Party. The Left-Greens added only one seat to their total, bringing up them to 11, although even a one-seat improvement is very useful in Iceland as their Althing has only 63 members. Nevertheless, last minute tactics were not enough to prevent losses by IP, who lost 5 seats bringing them down to 16, although given that the snap election was caused by a scandal involving a letter involving the Prime Minister's father (Benedikt Sveinsson wrote a letter recommending that a convicted child rapist have their "honour restored": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-41280080  )...

Readers, the results of this week's local by-elections in Britain were as follows: Charnwood BC, Loughborough Hastings (2 seats): Labour 676/648 (63.5%, +18.4%), Conservative 228 (21.9%,-0.8%), UKIP 95/79 (8.3%, -9.3%), Green 73/58 (6.3%, -8.3%). Derbyshire Dales DC, Ashbourne South: Conservative 495 (46.2%, -6.4%), Liberal Democrats 334 (31.2%), Labour (22.6%, -2.5%). Herefordshire UA, Kings Acre: Conservative 302 (38.5%), Independent 162 (20.6%), It's Our County 156 (19.9%, -30.2%), Liberal Democrats 90 (11.5%, -21.9%), Labour 75 (9.6%). Conservative gain from It's Our County (Herefordshire). Kirklees MBC, Batley East: Labour 2640 (77.0%, +7.2%), Conservative 443 (12.9%, -1.0%), Local Independents Heavy Wool District 141 (4.1%), Liberal Democrats 136 (4.0%, -1.0%), Green 70 (2.0%, -1.0%). Mid Sussex DC, East Grinstead Imberhorne: Conservative 540 (58.5%, -1.2%), Liberal Democrats 206 (22.3%), Labour 110 (11.9%, -9.1%), Independent 67 (7.3%). Tameside MBC, Droy...

In the Japanese general election of 2017, called less than 3 years after the previous election, change was relatively limited. Nevertheless, free and fair elections must be analysed. The governing coalition of the centre-right Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (neither liberal nor particularly democratic in practice) and the Komeito Party, the political arm of the Soka Gakkai Buddhist movement, did lose seats but only a total of 11 this election. It has a total of 313, which still represents over a 2/3 majority in the Japanese House of Representatives that elected 465 members this year. The LDP could actually govern by itself due to having 284 seats out of 465, but it will be continuing its coalition with Komeito nonetheless. Shinzo Abe, famous for "Abenomics" is still rather popular in Japan, and despite the formation of the Constitutional Democratic Party to replace the Democratic Party of Japan the opposition is still very fragmented. In fact, the DPJ was not planning ...

The Czech election of 2017 delivered a very dramatic result-just like the Czech election of 2013, one of the first I analysed. ANO, the relatively new (de facto) pro-EU liberal-conservative party led by the second richest man in the Czech Republic, scored a decisive victory as was expected, winning 29.64% of the vote and topping the poll in every region of the Czech Republic, even Prague, the capital. Andrej Babis, formerly Deputy Prime Minister, is now set to become the next Czech PM although he must still be careful about his choice of coalition partners. ANO has been able to do this by presenting a "big tent" ideology similar to that promoted by Italy's Five Star Movement and by assembling a large protest vote, especially in rural areas formerly loyal to the Civic Democrats. The Civic Democrats surprisingly came second, but it was a distant second with only 11.32%, less than 4% more than what they managed in their 2013 drubbing when they lost almost 3/4 of their seat...

Readers, the results of this week's local by-elections in Britain were as follows: Epping Forest DC, Lower Sheering: Conservative 220 (80.1%), Liberal Democrats 52 (19.9%). Gravesham BC, Meopham North: Conservative 721 (64.0%, +6.5%), Liberal Democrats 192 (17.0%), Labour 155 (13.8%, -4.8%), UKIP 59 (5.2%, -18.7%). Hartlepool UA, Seaton: Putting Hartlepool First 474 (31.6%), Independent Little 425 (28.3%, +15.6%), Labour 275 (18.3%, -4.9%), Conservative 180 (12.0%, -0.9%), UKIP 148 (9.9%, -13.8%). Putting Hartlepool First gain from Independent. Lincoln BC, Carholme: Labour 922 (63.4%, +4.5%), Conservative 368 (25.3%, +6.2%), Green 83 (5.7%, -6.8%), Liberal Democrats 82 (5.6%, -3.8%). Nottingham UA, Basford: Labour 1409 (68.2%, +19.3%), Conservative 408 (19.7%, +2.5%), UKIP 119 (5.8%, -11.4%), Green 81 (3.9%, -9.6%), Liberal Democrats 49 (2.4%).   Nottingham UA, Bestwood: Labour 1280 (63.4%, +8.2%), UKIP 301 (14.9%, -7.1%), Conservative 297 (14.7%, -1.2%), Liberal D...