Sheffield - Hustings 30 April

Greens very busy in Sheffield last night: hustings organised by Students
Union and FSB. Shan speaking at SU, Andrew at FSB and Ben (in middle)
busy leafleting for local and European elections with Eamonn.

Green campaign meeting Nellies Beverley

Martin and Bill at The White Horse Inn Beverley - known for its excellent
Sam Smiths beer and gloomy gas-lit rooms.

Campaign trail

– yesterday was a good day -  we needed to get some packs of Green newspapers from York cellar so decided to go by bike from Beverley - wearing our Green tabards of course.  It was a nice ride via  Cherry Burton and Etton.  We ate our lunch by St Helens Well on the old railway line nr  Mkt Weighton with all the ribbons attached to the tree. A robin came close for crumbs.  Dropped in at ‘Caring for Cats’  (Mkt Wtn)  open day…why do people apparently avoid black cats?...then to other side of A1079 (which is NOT bike-friendly):  cuppa at pub at Melbourne and visited the Pocklington Canal where volunteers run free boat trips.  We took a nice rural back route into York thru Heslington and over the Millennium bridge.  Snuck into Fairfax Corner (www.fairfaxcorner.co.uk )  as the guests were out,  watered pots in yard, changed  clothes in shed , used outside loo, strapped papers onto trolley , had G & T  and water with Rachel, and caught bus home  - where Bill slept all the way and I put the world to rights with a very thoughtful  lollipop man from Cottingham!...

 

 

Candidate for the Greens in Yorkshire and the Humber in Europe in 2014

http://www.facebook.com/shanoakesgreen

http://shanoakes.blogspot.co.uk/

 

‘the price of freedom is eternal vigilance’

 

tel 01482 862085 or 07769 607710

 

Who cares? (Letter to Beverley Guardian)

Dear Sir,

In response to Ian Middleton’s letter last week, ‘Does the Labour Party really care?’..   I would say that none of the old grey parties really care,  because  they are all stuck in a paradigm which  punishes the vulnerable for the crimes of the amoral  trans-national corporations and the banks which support them.  

The grey parties  are unable to see that ..‘what the world needs now’.. is a complete revamp of aims and values.   It’s ridiculous now to  support ‘growth’ at all costs.   The old  grey parties are stuck in that mind-set because of lobbying and funding from outdated vested interests.   The greys (and now UKIP) support fracking, Trident, and  the appalling  TTIP (Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership…or the Big Bad Law… which will have us all dancing even more to the tune of the aforementioned corporations) and flogging off our esteemed public services to boot.  They pay lip service to social justice by arguing about frills instead of dealing with these elephants in the room.

Sincerely

Shan Oakes

Leeds Trinity Uni Hustings

This was a really enjoyable event - thanks to LTU for hosting it.  The Green vote jumped from 5th to 2nd place (a before and after vote was held) so that was great.  However, I would have thought a room full of young people couldn't fail to vote Green since it's the only party which fights for genuine fairness, for the common good ( not the good of the few), and is firmly on the side of people and planet instead of profit for mega-business.  I think I took too much for granted and didn't spell out the the fact that social justice is fundamental to Green policy,  so Labour retained their first place even though they support the TTIP, neoliberalism, infinite growth on a finite planet, fracking, and Trident!!

ERYC should go - NOT the trees

My letter published in Beverley Guardian today:

 The felling of the trees on New Walkergate is one of the latest in the long list of crimes against nature brazenly committed  by ERYC (East Riding of Yorkshire Council) in our name and with our money.   Why?  Perhaps they have a contract with a company which fells trees so they have to find jobs to keep them busy? Is someone profiting from the wood?    Or is it simply a corporate mechanistic  mindset which wants everything - including nature - to be ‘tidy’?   The unevenness in the ground made by the tree roots was not a hazard to the footpath and it could have been  made into an attractive feature.  The wall could have been strengthened.  Does London remove its fantastic old plane trees which have grown  through and around the railings in the parks?  No.  

Saying they will replace the trees with ones 'specially chosen and sourced for the site'  is the newspeak we have come to expect from ERYC meaning 'you know nothing: we ‘experts’ know best'.   Most people instinctively protect trees - and they are right because the older a tree is the more biodiversity it hosts,  the more carbon it sequesters and the more beautiful it becomes. 

Nature thrives on diversity. It is beautiful because it is NOT tidy.  Beverley is an ancient town which should not look like a Milton Keynes.  ERYC has a biodiversity action plan, but does ERYC itself take any notice of it?  What ERYC  displays is a complete lack of understanding of nature, heritage, beauty, and people - in fact most things which matter.  Machine- chemical- newbuild - and road-obsessed ERYC is the thing which should go, not the trees.

Cacophony send-off for Lib Dems today in York

I  took an orange tin tray and big wooden spoon and joined the group of 'musicians' outside the Barbican Centre  today to play the LDs off the premises.  I was there particularly on behalf of the  thousands of people with disabilities who have died due to the inhuman 'assessments' done by ATOS.  Privatization of this kind of activity is utterly wrong. One delegate tried to explain to me that the staff running the ATOS operation had got the wrong idea about what they were supposed to be doing and were too draconian.  I pointed out that it's government's job to lead and set the tone...and anyway I had important tray-bashing work to do,  thanks very much.  

 

The LD delegates had little choice but to file past us.  Some of them looked suitably embarrassed.  Others didn't seem to have a clue what the problem was.

 

The guy lying on the ground is packing up his STOP HS2 white blow-up elephant.  There was a dog with a stylish NO NUKES coat on.  A helpful police liaison officer took the photo with me in it.   Apparently the protesters were much nicer than the lot inside the conference!