Travelling to Athens for Council of the European Green Parties

Bill on top couchette on the train.

Impressive recycling at Milan station.  

Overnight ferry from Brindisi, Italy, to Patra, Greece.

Truck drivers take in the island views.  

Turbines on hill tops (taken from bus to Athens).  

On arrival at the bus station someone sprayed something smelling of sick over our luggage - we think in an attempt to distract us -  but we remained in possession of all our stuff.  

Glad to say, since then, everyone has been very friendly!

Train trip to Athens

Saturday 3 November 0530 Milan - arrived on sleeper from Paris: what a magnificent station!!   Imperial Rome 30's style ... and thousands of starlings in trees outside making a sound like heavy rain.

 

Trying to educate the local Tory MP

Dear Graham,

Thank you for fitting me in last week at Westminster.   Your constituent, Maria, was doing very well explaining to you the Feminista manifesto, which I support.    I was already in London for Green Party Exec,  Earth Charter, and the women's rights and the badger cull demonstrations, and,  as I am always emailing you, I felt it might be useful to have a face to face meeting for a change.  As agreed, due to lack of time in your office last week, I shall  explain a few other points and make some requests  in addition to asking you to sign the Trident EDM.

Firstly, infinite and undefined 'growth' on a finite planet isn’t possible without destroying the planet.   The only kind of growth which would work would be ethical growth:  that is growth in activities which enhance rather than destroy communities and ecology.  Please see www.picturesofsuccess.org for examples.  Government's job is to give a clear lead and to set up arrangements to regulate activity.  Unregulated trade now  is anachronistic – to say the least.

Secondly, everything flows from this: if Corporate Man is in charge of this planet, everything becomes distorted.  For example, industrial farming likes monocultures instead of biodiversity - hence we get swarms of 'pests', leading to too much chemical use, leading to dying bees, leading to more chemical use...and so on.  It's 50 years since the publication of Rachel Carson's 'Silent Spring' and what have we learnt?  Nothing, it seems.  Human health is also suffering of course, due to the poisonous environment we inhabit..... You could say this contributes to 'growth' -  in profits for pharmaceutical companies : all that chemotherapy!  ...Perverse incentives.

Thirdly, and related to the point above,  please do not support a badger cull.  The evidence now points clearly away from it being useful.  Nature's complexity should be respected.

Fourthly, related to points one and two, please stop doing what the construction lobby says.  Encouraging the selling off of the land for housing is the last thing we need when we must grow more food in this country.  Please promote legislation which stops new-build on greenfield sites   (my blog explains more)

Fifthly,  arms, and war.  Just because arms have been manufactured and used for a long time, it doesn’t mean it's a good idea!  Could we please move on and stop the madness of this industry?   An arms industry creates more perverse incentives...towards war...'we dont want to waste these expensive weapons, do we?'    The skills used to make weapons could, for example, be redeployed making equipment for renewable energy (like 'turbines back to Lissett': wind turbines now gracing the old bomber command airstrip)....  To be positive -  let's really put our backs into supporting Hull as a green city, and Yorkshire as an ethical trading region

Finally, may I ask you, once again,  to consult your conscience and consider signing EDM 96 Trident Replacement.   The EDM highlights the conclusions of the Government's own National Security Strategy that the threat of a nuclear attack by another state is of low likelihood.  Following on from that, the EDM is a simple statement of opposition to Trident replacement, highlighting its £25 billion procurement cost and £100 billion lifetime cost.  The conclusion is that there are better things to spend the money on, whether within the Ministry of Defence or in other Ministries.

In a time of spending cuts we must scrap Trident replacement - please add your name to EDM 96.

Sincerely          Shan Oakes

The tragedy of the human race

I can’t bear it that ancient forests all over the world are being hacked down to be replaced with industrial  agriculture in the name of ‘development’. 

In classical tragedy,  when the hero oversteps the mark,  he gets  his comeuppance :  he’s pursued to his death by the Furies.   In my view we are living our very own worldwide classical tragedy right now.   ‘The hero’   (the human race)  is exercising his fatal flaw(s) of  short-sighted selfish greedy arrogance (in the shape of Corporate Man).  He has  already unleashed the horrifying Furies.   Of course the Furies are tormenting the poorest and most vulnerable people and the other species first – but,  what goes around eventually comes around.  

What is particularly worrying is that so many  humans seem to think we can escape ‘the Furies’ by leaving this planet behind when it’s trashed, and going somewhere else :  to an afterlife, or other planets!     I wonder if we’ll ever get real and deal with our fatal flaws ?

Building for growth?

– a letter regarding the predations of  developers, and the madness of old politics  

I write regarding the planning proposals for housing in the north of Beverley.  This government, and previous ones, have set up a presumption in favour of new build, putting pressure on local authorities to identify land.  The construction industry has lobbied hard  for this.  It is not about need, it's about profits for construction companies.  It comes from the tired ideology of ‘growth’, which is extremely short-term : like allowing a dog to run wild with no thought for the consequences for dog or community.  Look at Ireland - new houses built,  then bulldozed.  Look at casino banking…..The myth of infinite growth (on a finite planet) is busted and we had better hurry up and accept it. 

In the context of the global oil crisis,  we need land for food as we must now focus on producing  most of our food locally.  Government targets for new building are highly questionable - they are about a decade old and the economic climate has changed completely in that time.  Before building new houses, one has to ask where are the jobs  in the area for the occupants? is there sufficient infrastructure?  what are the transport implications? – but most importantly, can we afford to cover this valuable food-producing land in concrete?  We take food for granted at our peril.

Brownfield sites are available, and old housing needs renovation, which would provide local jobs instead of work for huge construction companies - which are, by nature, very wasteful  and, like other multi-nationals,  drain wealth out of the area. However, there is no VAT on new build,  and large construction companies prefer to work on virgin land - so where are the incentives to do the right thing?.

The 'corporate growth' idea is outdated.  Are we concerned about the welfare of local traders and communities  - or big business ?...  It’s time to think differently.

Greens of Europe: Paris Council meeting

A couple of shots of  'the candidate' as delegate at last Autumn's European Greens' Council meeting in Paris: a pre-meeting and voting.  This meeting climaxed in the Paris Declaration.  The GPEW stance is often greener than most of the other European green groups (e.g. we want far less European 'integration' than other groups).

GPEW gets more votes in this forum than many countries because of our relatively high vote in the European elections.  A Green vote really does count in the Euros!

Women in politics

Yesterday I drafted a press comment on behalf of the Executive in response to the publicity given to the paltry presence of women in government.

...‘That women feel  under-represented in and by government is no surprise.  The results of the  survey confirm what we already know through our conversations on the doorstep and in the streets and through observing the male-led policy-making of  the old grey political parties.   If more women had a real say in  choosing and running our  government, would we be buying a  new Trident missile system,  continuing to sell arms,  making a habit of  going to war,  bailing out and rewarding the (mostly male)  banking sector ... whilst cutting services and  benefits to  vulnerable people and those with disabilities? 

 As a woman in politics, it's frustrating to find one is often expected to fit in to the political stereotype of arguing about detail whilst the big issues (e.g. climate change, corporate exploitation of people and planet, democracy) are rarely mentioned.  To go to the root of the problem, to point out the elephant in the room (or that the emperor has no clothes) as many women tend to do, is often treated as naive -  ‘real’ politicians don’t mention that, do they?    

Politics needs women – not just in the UK,  but worldwide.  It is an outrage that at least half of the world’s population is marginalised.   On top of that, in the UK, the first-past-the-post electoral system means that  most people justifiably feel that their vote doesn’t count and/or that they can’t vote for a party they believe in  - so it’s really not surprising when the turnout at elections is so low.‘

We have a lively Green Party Women group in the Party  and we are working hard to ensure women are empowered to come forward as candidates as we see equality as fundamental to progress towards a sustainable world.  The Green Party has just elected its new Equality and Diversity Committee to ensure we  continuously improve. 

According to a report from the Centre for Women & Democracy  :

...at the 2010 General Election there were more candidates standing than ever before (4,134). There were also more women candidates than ever before (877), constituting a greater percentage of candidates than previously (21% as against 20% in 2005, 18% in 1997 and 8% in 1979).

The report noted that the Green Party had the highest percentage of women candidates (33% - a slightly inaccurate figure) followed by Labour (30%), the Conservative Party (24%) and the Liberal Democrats (21%).'