Job losses in Yorkshire - letter to Yorkshire Post

I write further to your article, ‘ Recession fears grow with wave of job cuts in region’ (8^th Feb).  The loss of bank jobs is, of course,  very sad for the employees concerned, but unsurprising in the current climate of takeovers and megacorporate rule.   Ethical banks, on the other hand,  such as Triodos,  the Cooperative  Bank  and the Ecology Building Society in Baildon are doing very well.  More and more people are looking for ‘good’ banking.  Perhaps redundant bank staff could consider starting up or supporting  the growth of local credit unions which will deal transparently and fairly with local people’s money. 

Local authority cuts are due to misguided government policy which  results in cuts to services for the most vulnerable, as well as a reduction in tax receipts and spending – a lose lose situation.

 Regarding a traditional firm such as Oakworth,   no doubt they make good quality products which could be used to improve energy efficiency , such as double and secondary glazing.  A shame that they were trading with one major customer rather than lots of smaller clients.  All these job losses boil down to the need to start rebuilding relationships in communities instead of allowing ourselves to be run by  corporates and multinationals. 

Now the Bank of England has announced a new batch of quantitative easing ( £50bn or so),  and the Green New Deal Group  is calling for such cash to be injected into a programme of green investment to support badly needed renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Rather than handing the money over to the banks, who then sit on it and refuse to lend, green QE would put money into the wider economy - creating thousands of new jobs, improving energy security and tackling climate change at the same time.

Shan Oakes

Green Party (Hull and East Riding)

Turbines versus oil wells on the Wolds

I 've been asked by BBC Radio Humberside to discuss the issue of wind turbines – again  (we Greens get a little bit annoyed when we are asked only about environmental issues when we have the full range of economic and social policies).  Anyway, to get to the point -  East Yorks Council (ERYC) is wanting to make the Wolds an area of outstanding natural beauty (AONB) in order to stop wind farm applications there.  I find this incredible.  Not that I don’t think the Wolds are beautiful because I do.  It’s the fact that ERYC doesn’t want wind turbines, but they don’t mind oil drilling!  They have agreed to let a Canadian oil firm start exploratory drilling near Walkington!   It’s ironic because wind turbines harness free clean energy, and polls tell us that most people approve of them and  like how they look, whereas  oil is a fossil fuel (carbon laid down millions of years ago) which produces CO2 when burned, which  is responsible for  climate change  - which is killing 150,000 people a year (World Health Organisation).  How crazy is that?  Or don’t they/we mind because the people dying are a long way away ?

Oil drilling : Yorkshire Wolds

Letter to Beverley Guardian:      ' Oil's not well on the Wolds '

We wrote  to object in the strongest possible terms to East Riding Council regarding proposals for oil prospecting on the Yorkshire Wolds.  The Green Party,  along with  Friends of the Earth (FOE) and other well-respected organisations,   campaign, on the basis of careful research,  for  development and  use of renewable energy and fuel conservation instead of the further exploitation of fossil fuels.   We have had a century’s addiction to oil  - and we must now wean ourselves off this addiction, as oil becomes harder and harder to find and to extract.  There are excellent alternatives which must be embraced instead of resisted.

Since the use of oil is clearly contradictory to CO2 reduction,  permission for exploratory drilling should never be granted on those grounds alone.  In addition,  the Wolds are and should be considered  an area of outstanding natural  beauty, and should not be subjected to blots on the landscape such as filthy, noisy, smelly, toxic  and brightly  lit oil extraction plants.  Wind turbines would be far preferable in all respects...and at least, with those, you can SEE what is going on.  Mining and drilling underground is particularly dangerous because it can have unexpected consequences:    ‘ fracking’  was apparently responsible for an earth tremor in the Blackpool area.  Underground water courses can become adulterated .  If this exploration were to be  ‘successful’  the resource would be drained and then the company would move on to despoil other sites, leaving a wasteland behind.  Unfortunately, the lure of the huge profits for the companies and their partners leads to them working very hard to get agreement for this appalling activity.  Think of  mountain top removal for coal  in the United States.   Where will it end?  How can industrial activity of this kind be contemplated in the Wolds?  There ARE alternatives – as usual, we have to choose.

The ludicrously short timescale of ‘consultation’ in this case is yet another cause for concern.  It suggests that both the Council and  the company concerned have little regard for local residents’ views.   Residents in nearby villages received letters only two or three days before the initial planning meeting (at which the decision was deferred). 

To allow this proposal for oil prospecting to go ahead would be a gross abnegation of responsibility on the part of ERY Council, both in relation to current citizens and to future generations, so please let your elected representatives (both in the Council and Parliament) know your feelings on this issue.

Shan Oakes

Green Party

Hull and East Riding

Letter to Ugandan President Museveni

I am joining Friends of the Earth Uganda (NAPE) in their campaign to protect Uganda's unique heritage.

 We lived in Uganda for a few years (2001-4) and saw how beautiful it is  - although we were aware of how much of it had already been deforested. Please don't be tricked into ruining your wonderful country for another short term commercial modernist 'solution'.

We visited the Ssesse Islands and know that they are a fantastic tourism resource - but not if they are turned into monoculture plantations (the products of which are boycotted by growing numbers of people). Please support permaculture instead.

 Please consider the long term future and the integrity of the age-old respect humans had for the land.  Monocultures are dangerous - we need to protect biodiversity. At last many people are beginning to realise this (but our politicians do not as they are blinkered by vested interests)

We live in the UK and this country has been thoroughly despoiled by too much 'development'.  The grassroots is now trying, through the Transition movement (now taking off worldwide), to relearn the old values which are not just about profit.  

Please also see the international Earth Charter which lists the values and principles we need for a sustainable world.

In Uganda you know what it is to fight against oppression; this commercial oppression must be opposed.  Please stand up for what's right.

Letter to Beverley Guardian - hypocrisy

Dear Sir,

A meeting has been called in Beverley  this Friday 25^th Nov at 2pm  about increasing homelessness and  lack of jobs in the area (for detail call  874096).  Considering the ConDem policies of blaming/punishing the poor (by cutting public services and pensions)  for the sins and greed of the banks  and corporations ,  it’s a bit rich that our MP has expressed concern about the issues and may attend this meeting.  Unfortunately we can’t be there,  but if we were, we would be asking him exactly how he thinks that his turbo-capitalist policies are going to help.   It’s the government’s job to understand the big picture and act accordingly….but all it is doing is promoting business as usual.  It’s repeating the mistakes of the 1930s.   It’s so tied in with the toxic financial, commercial, energy and military  ‘establishment’ that it can’t accept that things have to change radically now (in light of the crises in oil, most other resources, climate,  economy, ecology and society)  to promote  local economies and local sustainability – as in the Transition Towns initiative ( and there is now a local group) and explained by the Green Party deputy leader  next Thursday Dec 1^st at Norwood Methodist Church, 7.30pm.   

The Government will say it is trying to promote ‘growth’ (ie supporting the CITY of London,  big business and more globalisation -  the very things responsible for global physical and economic overheating,  wars for resources, arms proliferation,  etc.)  It is blinkered,  to say the least.     Einstein said:     ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them’.  We are overdue for a big (positive and exciting) change in our thinking.

We do hope that others will make these points at the meeting    (as well as trying to find ways to patch up the expanding holes in the local economy and services)

sincerely

Shan Oakes

East Riding  Green Party

St Pauls and the protest

Dear St Paul’s ,

Congratulations on coming to the decision  not to invoke legal means against the protesters. 

Anyone who thinks at all about what’s going wrong (worldwide) can see that the protesters are right and are speaking up for people and planet against the destructive and overweening  power of the banks and their ilk - which have squatted for too long in the City,  silently manipulating the policy of this country - with enormous and terrible global impact.  

This is a critical moment in this planet’s history,  and St Paul’s is centre stage.  I’m not a Christian (because I think religions divide people),  but  I admire Jesus the man for standing up for the weak, the poor and for justice.  I think it’s very clear which side Jesus would be on in the current conflict...

Surely now is the time for religions to stand together, be brave and clear,  and tell the world of finance with its parasitical pawn politicians  what they think of it.  For a start, David Cameron should do a U turn and, against the City’s wishes,  support the ‘Robin Hood ‘  tax on financial transactions.  How can this country hold its head up when our prime minister won’t even climb onto the moral high ground in Europe?

Sincerely,

Shan Oakes

Beverley, East Yorkshire

Ithaca - solar panels

Vathy,  the capital of Ithaca, the legendary  home of Odysseus - lots of solar water fittings.  Lovely place too!