Corporate influence on food production

Vandana Shiva - "Corporate influence on food production in India, and large, chemical monoculture farms, is causing a severe food insecurity crisis."


http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/20117810358528978.html

Public services poem raises the roof at Glastonbury

In the latest stage of the union’s campaign against the Tory’s hard and fast public spending cuts, UNISON, the UK’s largest public services union, has commissioned a poem from the poet in residence at Glastonbury festival.

The hard-hitting poem called For the People, By Tony Walsh, aka Longfella, was  performed during the three-day festival taking place at Worthy Farm.
Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:
“We are using every means possible to get the message out there about the huge dangers the Tories pose to our society, our economy, and to our public services. Tony’s rousing poem highlights the injustice of cuts, which hit the poorest hardest, at the same time as the bankers carry on pocketing billions in bonuses.”

http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2346

Banksy's tribute to Brian Haw

TelGraf 5th Anniversary bash at Parliament

With Jenny Jones AM, the Kurt twins (Green Party Candidates), Danny Bates (Jean Lambert's office) and Caroline Allen (Green GLA candidate)

Police numbers.

Met officers taking over staff roles


The Metropolitan Police 2011-14 policing plan will reduce the proportion of staff in the workforce, with an 11% reduction of staff and 5% reduction of officer numbers. The Met has one of the lowest proportions of staff in the workforce in comparison with other forces.

Jenny Jones is concerned that this shift means officers are being moved into jobs previously done by staff for a lower cost, including uniformed staff such as PCSOs and others dealing directly with the public. At the London Assembly plenary meeting on the 8th June, Jenny will question the Chair of the MPA Kit Malthouse and the Met's Deputy Commissioner Tom Godwin on the value for money of this change.

Reportedly, Lambeth police are planning to fill five front counter vacancies with officers rather than specialist station reception staff or PCSOs. Further, the proposed reorganisation of the control room will see a loss of staff posts with officers taking over some of the work.

Changes to Safer Schools teams include 70 officers replacing 102 PCSOs and the Safer Transport command has seen 510 traffic warden and PCSO posts replaced by 413 officers.

The Mayor's buy-one-get-one-officer-free offer to boroughs has resulted in proposals for officers to take over park patrols from local authority staff in Redbridge and Wandsworth.

Jenny said:

“I am worried that the focus on keeping up officer numbers means the Met are taking a backward step by putting officers into roles that can be done by staff. All the advice in delivering a better police force for less recommends making greater use of police staff. Beyond financial savings, there are other advantages to using police staff in these roles, as they tend to stay in the same role longer, developing expertise and local knowledge.

“Police officers are highly trained with specialist skills and should be used in roles that require these skills. Putting officers on front counters, when this can be done successfully by specialist staff for less, delivers poor value for money for Londoners”.

Jenny Jones has put the following question to Kit Malthouse (MPA chair) and Tim Godwin (deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police) for the London Assembly plenary on the 8th June.

Question No: 81/2011

Make-up of MPS workforce

Jenny_Jones

Are you concerned about the value for money implications of moving to a workforce with a higher proportion of police officer posts and lower proportion of civilian posts?

The health benefits of merely living close to a green space are worth up to £300 per person per year

The UK's parks, lakes, forests and wildlife are worth billions of pounds to the economy, says a major report. The health benefits of merely living close to a green space are worth up to £300 per person per year, it concludes. The National Ecosystem Assessment (NEA) says that for decades, the emphasis has been on producing more food and other goods - but this has harmed other parts of nature that generate hidden wealth.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13616543

...they didn't have the green thing back then.

A friend sent me this story:

In the queue at the Supermarket, the cashier told the old woman that she should bring her own grocery bag because plastic bags weren't good for the environment..
The woman apologized to him and explained, "We didn't have the green thing back in my day."
The cashier responded, "That's our problem today. The former generation did not care enough to save our environment."
He was right, that generation didn't have the green thing in its day. Back then, they returned their milk bottles, lemonade bottles and beer bottles to the shop. The shop sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled.
But they didn't have the green thing back in that customer's day.
In her day, they walked up stairs, because they didn't have an escalator in every supermarket and office building. They walked to the grocery shop and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower gas guzzling machine every time they had to go half a mile up the road.
But she was right. They didn't have the green thing in her day.


Back then, they washed the baby's nappy’s because they didn't have the throw-away kind.

They dried clothes on a line, not in an energy gobbling machine burning up 230 volts - wind and solar power really did dry the clothes. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.
But that old lady is right, they didn't have the green thing back in her day.
Back then, they had one TV, or radio, in the house - not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief, not a screen the size of the Scotland.
In the kitchen, they blended and stirred by hand because they didn't have electric machines to do everything for them.

When they packaged a fragile item to send in the post, they used a screwed up old newspaper to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap.
Back then, they didn't fire up an engine and burn petrol just to cut the lawn. They used a push mower that ran on human power.
They exercised by working so they didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.
But she's right, they didn't have the green thing back then.
They drank from a tap when they were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time they had a drink of water.
They refilled their writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and they replaced the razor blades in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.
But they didn't have the green thing back then.
Back then, people took a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their mums into a 24-hour taxi service.
They had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And they didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 2,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest fish and chip shop.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful the old folks were just because they didn't have the green thing back then?

Bob Dylan

Tuesday 24^th May is Bob Dylan’s 70^th birthday.   Pause to download a Dylan song or two and think about Dylan’s contribution to the anti-war movement at a time when music was one of the few mediums available to young people to challenge the status quo.

Yesterday, on Twitter, Boris claimed that his ancestor, Denis Johnson, invented the bike.

Gary Neville,

Gary Neville, formerly of Man United, wins 18-month struggle with planning authorities for permission to build a 40m-high wind turbine alongside his proposed new zero-carbon house set in rolling countryside near Bolton. Much of the revenue from his testimonial match next week will go into a "Sustainability in Sport" fund, which he is launching to help grass-roots sporting projects to reduce their carbon footprint and to promote sustainable living. Next Tuesday's match at Old Trafford will also be the first to be entirely wind-powered – by virtue of the strategic partnership Neville is forming with the green energy supplier Ecotricity.


http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/neville-the-red-devil-who-became-a-green-saint-2286634.html

Met police to resume use of dum-dum bullets.

Met police to issue hollow point bullets to all 3000 firearms officers; NATO forces don't use hollow points, the Hague Treaty bans their use by military forces, not civilian forces; these were the bullets used to kill Jean Charles de Menezes


http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/11/met-police-hollow-bullets-menezes

Stephen Agnew's victory speech

Stephen held our seat in the Northern Irealnd Assembly under incredibly difficult circumstances. After the final count, over two days, he had 90 votes to spare.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQGq40CZ3cw

The NI Local Election counts started this morning. We are expecting to do well there also.

Auction

AUCTION.
UNIQUE BOTTLE OF ‘HUGO BLANCO WINE, autographed by the great man himself.
Bids directly to noellynch@lineone.net
Lets say a starting bid of £5, but it should make much more that that!
Deadline for bids: Midnight May 15th.
Pickup in London or postage extra..
Proceeds will be divided between Green Left and Lucha Indigena, the publication that Hugo edits.


Please cascade to anyone who might be interested.

William Morris May Day poem 1892.

THE EARTH.


Are ye few? Are they many? What words have ye spoken

To bid your own brethren remember the Earth?

What deeds have ye done that the bonds should be broken,

And men dwell together in good-will and mirth?

THE WORKERS.

They are few, we are many: and yet, O our Mother,

Many years were we wordless and nought was our deed,

But now the word flitteth from brother to brother:

We have furrowed the acres and scattered the seed.

THE EARTH.

Win on then unyielding, through fair and foul weather,

And pass not a day that your deed shall avail.

And in hope every spring-tide come gather together

That unto the Earth ye may tell all your tale.

Then this shall I promise, that I am abiding

The day of your triumph, the ending of gloom,

And no wealth that ye will then my hand shall be hiding

And the tears of the spring into roses shall bloom.