None do justice to the sheer volume of people there mind.
Saturday 26 March 2011
A coule of pictures from todays rally in London
None do justice to the sheer volume of people there mind.
No left turn
I took this photo in Whitehall this morning (a few minutes before joining the march).
I wondered if it was where Nick Clegg got his economic polices from....
Wednesday 23 March 2011
AV alternative vote
We are just producing a leaflet which suggest people should support the AV system of voting. I'm a bit lukewarm about it personally, but will vote 'yes'.
I'll make a couple of comments about it here.
1. The basic advantage of it is that it allows people to vote positively with their first vote. Our politics is becoming overwhelmingly negative, many people vote against what they to be rid of, rather than for what they want
2. I think it actually formalises tactical voting. The second or third preferences are - surely a tactical decision?I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, mind.
3. The requirement for the winner to get over 50% support, well, I guess. Dawn P may well have had my third preference vote. I'm not sure what work she would have done to get it, mind. Or if she wanted it. Having a symbolic need to pass a 50% figure is difficult to argue against though.
4. I doubt if it helps parties like ours to get extra people elected. It may make it harder, but probably wont make a huge amount of difference.
5. Opponents seem to be saying that why should smaller parties have several votes when they only get one. Strictly speaking, this is incorrect - they can record second and third references if they choose to do so. They just may not get considered.
Fptp of course gives all the power to the largest minority (or majority, but usually it is a minority). With the fractionalisation of voting habits (is that a word?) it is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory. We'd obviously rather see a proper system of PR. Some day maybe....
I'll make a couple of comments about it here.
1. The basic advantage of it is that it allows people to vote positively with their first vote. Our politics is becoming overwhelmingly negative, many people vote against what they to be rid of, rather than for what they want
2. I think it actually formalises tactical voting. The second or third preferences are - surely a tactical decision?I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing, mind.
3. The requirement for the winner to get over 50% support, well, I guess. Dawn P may well have had my third preference vote. I'm not sure what work she would have done to get it, mind. Or if she wanted it. Having a symbolic need to pass a 50% figure is difficult to argue against though.
4. I doubt if it helps parties like ours to get extra people elected. It may make it harder, but probably wont make a huge amount of difference.
5. Opponents seem to be saying that why should smaller parties have several votes when they only get one. Strictly speaking, this is incorrect - they can record second and third references if they choose to do so. They just may not get considered.
Fptp of course gives all the power to the largest minority (or majority, but usually it is a minority). With the fractionalisation of voting habits (is that a word?) it is becoming increasingly unsatisfactory. We'd obviously rather see a proper system of PR. Some day maybe....
Tuesday 22 March 2011
From them anti-nuclear people
Dear all,
In light of the terrible events occurring at the Fukushima nuclear power station, please take just a few minutes on these three important new actions:
Write to Energy Secretary Chris Huhne using our model e-mail tool asking him to abandon plans to build new nuclear power stations and back a non-nuclear energy policy.
E-mail your MP asking him/her to sign Early Day Motion 1615 calling on the government to suspend plans for new nuclear power stations, following the Fukushima disaster.
Sign the Friends of the Earth petition calling on the government to adopt a safe, secure non-nuclear energy policy.
Many thanks,
Dawn Rothwell
Campaigns Officer (Research & Information)
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Registered office: Mordechai Vanunu House, 162 Holloway Road, London N7 8DQ
Tel: 020 7700 2393 Fax: 020 7700 2357 Web: www.cnduk.org
In light of the terrible events occurring at the Fukushima nuclear power station, please take just a few minutes on these three important new actions:
Write to Energy Secretary Chris Huhne using our model e-mail tool asking him to abandon plans to build new nuclear power stations and back a non-nuclear energy policy.
E-mail your MP asking him/her to sign Early Day Motion 1615 calling on the government to suspend plans for new nuclear power stations, following the Fukushima disaster.
Sign the Friends of the Earth petition calling on the government to adopt a safe, secure non-nuclear energy policy.
Many thanks,
Dawn Rothwell
Campaigns Officer (Research & Information)
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)
Registered office: Mordechai Vanunu House, 162 Holloway Road, London N7 8DQ
Tel: 020 7700 2393 Fax: 020 7700 2357 Web: www.cnduk.org
March on Saturday
Well, I've just got my tickets, and hope not to meet anyone there I know (because it will be so big they will be impossible to find!)
In a pickle
http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=96945
Eric of course. Thinks: some rich bloke very happy to make poor people poorer.
Eric of course. Thinks: some rich bloke very happy to make poor people poorer.
Friday 18 March 2011
2 hrs from running out of cash?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/alistair-darling-we-were-two-hours-from-the-cashpoints-running-dry-2245350.html
According to this report we were close to financial catastrophe a coupe of years ago.
While you can believe this or not as you see fit, it makes me think that while it is right to blame Labour for at least some of the financial mess we got in to, it is difficult to be overly critical of what they did when they were there.
To fail to save the banks was surely not an option?
It makes me shudder to think what Osborne might have got up to in the same circumstances. Some sort of thirties style economic solution? In fact, it also makes you wonder if they would have avoided the crisis i the first place. The Tory mantra has always been 'less regulation' - and yet it is arguably failure to regulate the banks which led to the dodgy lending in the first place.
You also wonder if anything is really going to happen about bank regulation. Will anyone really actually control them? We seem unable to do anything meaningful about their bonuses.
It also makes me wonder if the socialists aren't right all along. The banks quite possibly should be nationalised. Too important to our day to day lives to be allowed to fail.
According to this report we were close to financial catastrophe a coupe of years ago.
While you can believe this or not as you see fit, it makes me think that while it is right to blame Labour for at least some of the financial mess we got in to, it is difficult to be overly critical of what they did when they were there.
To fail to save the banks was surely not an option?
It makes me shudder to think what Osborne might have got up to in the same circumstances. Some sort of thirties style economic solution? In fact, it also makes you wonder if they would have avoided the crisis i the first place. The Tory mantra has always been 'less regulation' - and yet it is arguably failure to regulate the banks which led to the dodgy lending in the first place.
You also wonder if anything is really going to happen about bank regulation. Will anyone really actually control them? We seem unable to do anything meaningful about their bonuses.
It also makes me wonder if the socialists aren't right all along. The banks quite possibly should be nationalised. Too important to our day to day lives to be allowed to fail.
Tuesday 15 March 2011
Tsunami
Looking at the Daily Express today (at the dentist, I didn't buy it!), I saw pictures of a part of Japan after Hiroshima, and after the Tsunami.
It showed one of the iconic pictures after Hiroshima f an area flattened except for what I presume is some sort of religious structure (basically an arch). The same picture is reflected after the tsunami.
It is a terrifying picutre of the sheer destructive power of the tsunami, which puts our local travails into a little bit of perspective.
It showed one of the iconic pictures after Hiroshima f an area flattened except for what I presume is some sort of religious structure (basically an arch). The same picture is reflected after the tsunami.
It is a terrifying picutre of the sheer destructive power of the tsunami, which puts our local travails into a little bit of perspective.
Friday 11 March 2011
Playing out
The Playing Out project, set up by Bristol parents to encourage and enable safe street play, is giving free workshops around Bristol in the week beginning 21st March. Anyone is welcome to come along and find out more about the project and explore issues around independent play, streets and neighbourliness. You should go away feeling fully equipped to organise playing out on your own street! To book a place at any of the workshops email: aliceandamy@hotmail.com or ring Alice on 07896 957141. Children and babies can be accommodated.
All the workshops will run from 10am to 12.30 and the dates and venues are:
Monday 21st March - Knowle West: The Mede Centre, Marshall Walk, Inns Court (as part of the Knowle West 'HappyFest' see www.happycity.org.uk)
Tuesday 22nd March - Hotwells: Upstairs at the Spring Gardens, 188 Hotwells Road.
Thursday 24th March - Stokes Croft: The Community Room, Coexist, Hamilton House.
For more information about the Playing Out project visit their website: www.playingout.net.
All the workshops will run from 10am to 12.30 and the dates and venues are:
Monday 21st March - Knowle West: The Mede Centre, Marshall Walk, Inns Court (as part of the Knowle West 'HappyFest' see www.happycity.org.uk)
Tuesday 22nd March - Hotwells: Upstairs at the Spring Gardens, 188 Hotwells Road.
Thursday 24th March - Stokes Croft: The Community Room, Coexist, Hamilton House.
For more information about the Playing Out project visit their website: www.playingout.net.
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Planning meeting yesterday
went as expected pretty such.
Hey ho.
Disappointed with the way Lesley Alexander didn't even attempt to stop the booing of virtually every speaker against the supermarket though.
Hey ho.
Disappointed with the way Lesley Alexander didn't even attempt to stop the booing of virtually every speaker against the supermarket though.
Tuesday 1 March 2011
Planning meeting tomorrow
Today is the deadline for submissions to the planning meeting re Ashton Gate, so mine will go in later.
Have to say I am not overly optimistic about the outcome this time.I'm certainly a bit bemused by the LibDem decision to replace all of its members.
Have to say I am not overly optimistic about the outcome this time.I'm certainly a bit bemused by the LibDem decision to replace all of its members.
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