Whizzo Quizzo - THIS WEDNESDAY.

Who invented the hole in the donut?
How was Wigan United AC involved in the fall of communism.
What did a Monkee's mother invent?
Why did John Major fail to get a job as a bus conductor?
Viagra was originally development as a treatment for what?

These questions may (or may not) be in our fun quiz. Come along and find out the answers.

Event: Green Party Trade Union Group fundraising Quiz..
When: This Wednesday, August 31st.
Start 7.30pm.
Venue: Development House, Leonard Street, close to Old Street Tube.  Just take exit 4 from the tube, walk about 20 yards and turn left down Leonard Street. Development House is at the far end of the street opposite the Borris Bikes.

Admission: £5 or £3 concessions.

Why not bring a team of friend, workmates, relations etc?  Otherwise, you can just turn up and join one at the event.

Also, bring your own drink and food to share.

Further details: Quizmaster, Noel Lynch 07961 44 1722

Arrest in Parliament Square - police video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiesVB2AaLE&feature=feedu

This is from the Brian Haw site.  It's from the police's own video.  Watch it to the end, the policeman in charge did not know that the tape was still running.

Lack of parenting support funds fuels riots debate

Molly Garboden

Tuesday 16 August 2011 14:03


Despite the prime minister's calls for stronger parenting in England after last week's riots and looting, local authorities are spending on average just 6% of their early intervention grant on parenting support this year, according to responses to a Community Care freedom of information request.

Last week, David Cameron said: "The sight of those young people running down streets, smashing windows, taking property, looting, laughing as they go – the problem of that is a complete lack of proper parenting, a lack of proper upbringing. That is what we need to change."

In her final review of child protection in England, Professor Eileen Munro pointed to Department of Health research stating that for every £1 spent on "parenting interventions to prevent persistent conduct disorders in their children" local authorities would save £7.89.

The riots have shown the potential for such an investment and the need for greater commitment to parenting programmes, experts have said.

"It seems ironic that David Cameron is emphasising parenting support now because he's the one who put in the cuts that are forcing local authorities to decrease their parenting support services," said Nushra Mansuri, professional officer at the British Association of Social Workers.

"He's seeing the devastation now, though. If the government really is going to commit to effective parenting programmes, they need to implement ring-fencing.

Toby Perkins, shadow education minister, said: "All the evidence shows that we're actually seeing cuts in preventative programmes. That really doesn't match up with the government's rhetoric about the importance of supporting parents and the situation is very dangerous when we're seeing the catastrophic reality of when children and young people go off the rails in the riots that happened last week."


Members of the children's services sector have said 6% of a local authority's early intervention grant on parenting will not cover the support families need.

"Six per cent of the grant is not going to provide the type of universal provision that the government is calling for," said Pamela Park, chief executive of Parenting UK.

"Taking a holistic view, we believe councils must invest enough to allow for a universal offer of parenting support in early years, with enough on top of that for follow-up support for parents as new challenges arise as their children get older. I don't think this 6% is enough for all that."

Statistics show about a quarter of those charged in connection with the looting and riots in England were younger than 18

"Stealing the Common from the Goose" 17th century commons poem

The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

But leaves the greater villain loose

Who steals the common from off the goose.



The law demands that we atone

When we take things we do not own

But leaves the lords and ladies fine

Who take things that are yours and mine.



The poor and wretched don’t escape

If they conspire the law to break;

This must be so but they endure

Those who conspire to make the law.



The law locks up the man or woman

Who steals the goose from off the common

And geese will still a common lack

Till they go and steal it back.

Tweet Pie

The 'Tweet Pie' recipe book - subtitled the 'The World's Shortest Recipe Book' contains 140-character recipes submitted by users of that Twitter thing. It contains instructions on making snacks, starters, main courses and puddings, all crowd-sourced on the social networking site, with more than 200 submitted. As a book with less than 7,000 characters would be quite short to say the least, it is augmented with illustrations from Twitter users, and recipes from actual chefs. The proceeds from the sales of the book will be given to FoodCycle to help combat food poverty. It is estimated that 4 million British people suffer from food poverty, and suggest that malnutrition costs the NHS £13 billion per year.

You can buy a copy of the 'Tweet Pie' from FoodCycle's eBay page.

Lambeth and Southwark Greens select campaigning Dad as candidate for London elections

A Dad who confronted David Cameron during the last general election campaign over his plans for disabled children, has been selected as the Green candidate for Lambeth and Southwark in next years London Assembly elections.


Jonathan Bartley, who has lived in Lambeth and Southwark all his life, was also the national spokesperson for the 'Yes' campaign, in the recent referendum on changing the voting system for the House of Commons. People in Lambeth and Southwark backed the change.


A regular panellist on BBC1's The Big Questions, and Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show he writes for the Guardian newspaper and is a paper reviewer for BBC Radio London.


Jonathan Bartley said: "Next year's London elections are about the kind of London we want to live in at a time of economic hardship and cuts. We have a clear choice between a city which favours the wealthiest, or one which champions equality, inclusion, sustainability and accessibility for all.


"It is shameful that one of the richest cities in the world should also be one where the gap between the richest and poorest is one of the widest. It is important to fight cuts to housing benefit, the NHS and youth services, but it is also important to propose alternatives. The Greens who have been elected to the London Assembly over the last ten years, have done this successfully. I look forward to working with then, and others, to ensure we get more Greens elected in 2012 and make the alternative vision a reality."

The ultimate insult for Clarkson: His view's been ruined by a recycling tip

By Jonathan Brown

The Independent.  Monday, 1 August 2011

It is a development that will be savoured by environmentalists. Jeremy Clarkson, patron saint of petrol heads and serial denouncer of "eco-mentalists", can look forward to a recycling depot being built within a Lamborghini Murcielago's braking distance of his country home.

And for the growing band of critics of the so-called Chipping Norton set – the Cotswold hub to a certain David Cameron, Rebekah Brooks and Elisabeth Murdoch, as well as the Top Gear presenter and his family – there is a second, equally delicious twist. The man behind the campaign to move the existing plant from near the village of Dean, where the Camerons live, to a site next door to the Clarksons is Lord Chadlington, a close friend ofMr Cameron and president of theWest Oxfordshire Conservative Association.

Clarkson, who owns a sprawling Edwardian pile with an excellent view of the proposed site, feels powerless to stop the development. "It seems that my local council is thinking of moving the town's tip right next to my back garden," he said. "Normally, this is the sort of issue I would raise with my MP. Unfortunately my MP is David Cameron and, at present, the town's tip is right next to his back garden. I think therefore he won't be very sympathetic."

Dean Pit, where residents queue each weekend to recycle their household waste, is to close at the end of September. Were the new recycling plant not to be built near Chateau Clarkson, another proposed site was close to the home of the outgoing News International chief executive Ms Brooks. In a rare piece of good news for her, though, that site was rejected by West Oxfordshire District Council.

Lord Chadlington, who takes his noble title from the nearby Oxfordshire village where he lives, and is better known as Peter Selwyn Gummer, founder of the PR giant Shandwick, is said to have paid for a study by a group of independent experts looking at possible alternatives to the current site.

Mr Clarkson's fate was met with delight by local Greens, who picketed against the decision to award him an honorary degree at Oxford Brookes University in 2005 because of his outspoken views on climate change among other things. When the ceremony went ahead, the presenter received a custard pie in the face from a protester.

"It's got to go somewhere and I couldn't think of a better person than Jeremy Clarkson," cackled Councillor David Williams, group leader of the Oxfordshire Green Party. "He permeates a laddish culture where you put your foot down and burn as much fossil fuel as you can. He asked our members one day if they thought it was hot, referring to global warming. He said 'You can blame me for that.' That sort of joke doesn't go down well. The local environmentalists don't like Jeremy Clarkson and he doesn't like them."

Glyn Watkins of the group Chippy First said that some other locals did sympathise with Clarkson. "We don't see a great deal of him but he raises money for the lido which is used by Samantha Cameron and her kids," he said. "He also raises money for the hospice in Banbury. He does his bit.

"We hope he does complain to David Cameron but if he gets it moved it will be seen as a case of the old boys' act. He's damned whatever way he does it."

Clarkson on environmentalists

* "I've argued time and again that the old trade unionists and CND lesbians didn't go away. They just morphed into environmentalists. The red's become green but the goals remain the same. And there's no better way of achieving those goals than turning the lights out and winding the clock back to the Stone Age. Only when we're all eating leaves under a hammer and sickle will they be happy." (January 2008, Sunday Times)

* "These eco-people are the sort who were bullied at school. They have poor dress sense, limited social skills and they know they stand little chance of making much headway in the world, so they want it changed." (February 2008, Sunday Times)

RIP LUCERO AGUILAR

From SchNEWS
Mexico's drug war claimed another life in Ciudad Juarez, the border city that is officially the world's most violent city. In a city with an an average death toll of eight murders a day, this is shocking but not surprising. The victim was 19 year old Lucero Aguilar, an activist for MORENO, a left-wing youth movement. A former drug dealer himself, Lucero had quit the bloody business and dedicated himself to rescuing other youths in the poorest neighbourhoods from getting sucked in by the promises of money and power (and a short lifespan) offered by the cartels.
Lucero was ambushed in the local football field, where gunmen shot him in the back. He died shortly afterwards in hospital. It's highly unlikely that his killing will ever be investigated, or that his killers will be brought to justice. In Juarez, like most of Mexico, the narcos (gangsters) operate with complete impunity- if his killers weren't actually policemen, they will have collaborated with the police and city authorities.
Friends from his neighbourhood said, 'He was a man of his word, he cared for the kids, and he worked because he loved his neighbourhood'
It is believed that his killing was meant to be a warning to Juarez's peace activists and community organisers, who have been getting more visible and confident since the arrival of the Peace Caravan back in June (see SchNEWS 775). Lucero's death is another reminder of just how cheap life is in Juarez, and how vulnerable activists are in Mexico.
* More Moreno (for Spanish readers) at www.regeneracion.mx

LYONS LED BY DONKEYS

From SchNEWS

Michael Lyons served as a medical assistant submariner for six years before he was expelled from the navy for thinking and feeling. He was due to begin a two-week rifle course at HMS Excellent, a shore base in Portsmouth, last September but refused pre-deployment, asking instead to be put to a non-combat role.

In court he confirmed he had all his physical and mental faculties, and his objections to orders rose from personal convictions not madness. Well we've got a live one. 'My initial objections started with Afghanistan and I wanted to investigate the reasons why we were at war. At the time WikiLeaks came along and mentioned Iraq and Afghanistan. The reports said there had been some civilian casualties that nobody knew about and they were being covered up,' he said.
Lyons had already been told he couldn't treat Afghan civilians, which added to his uneasiness about going to war. Apparently medics cannot have such scruples but just be good at putting up and shutting up - and learning how to shoot people. To put more froth in the juice the appeal as an conscientious objector status 'probably' failed due to him being an atheist rather than an ordinary God fearing good little boy. Lyons was ordered to see a Chaplain despite his anti-religious convictions, after which the Chaplain stated it was a political, rather than a moral objection.

Without the defence that he was refusing on religious grounds, this conscientious person was found guilty of disobeying a lawful order at his court martial in Plymouth on Tuesday (5th).

Charities fund horrific experiments

4 leading medical research charities are accused of using money donated by the public to fund horrific animal experiments.
A major new report by Animal Aid describes how charity-funded medical researchers have deliberately damaged monkeys' brains with toxic chemicals, and slowly and systematically destroyed dogs' hearts. Other researchers, according to Victims of Charity, have tormented mice in water mazes, injected them with cancerous tissue, or used animals who had been subjected to special breeding programmes that left them weakened, disease-prone and mentally deranged.

 The 4 charities are Cancer Research UK, the British Heart Foundation, Parkinson's UK and the Alzheimer's Society. Their collective joint annual income currently exceeds £800m.

 'What all 4 charities have in common,' says the Animal Aid report, 'is a determination to conceal the nature and extent of the animal suffering for which they are responsible.'

Animal Aid is calling on the public to withhold all financial support until they pledge to end their funding of animal experiments. This includes donations, legacies and charity shop purchases. The boycott campaign will be backed by a series of national newspaper advertisements, as well as by campaign postcards that the public is being asked to fill out and send to the Chief Executives of the 4 organisations. Reinforcing the boycott message are on-the-record statements by several anti-vivisectionists who themselves are afflicted by serious medical conditions. Their message, in relation to the animal experiments funded by the charities, is: 'Not in my name'.

While descriptions of animal suffering form a vital part of the new Animal Aid report, Victims of Charity also challenges the claim that the suffering is justified because the experiments produce significant health benefits for people.

Researched and written by hospital doctor and medical lecturer Adrian Stallwood, and by veterinary surgeon Andre Menache, the authors examine past and contemporary accounts of experimental procedures written by the experimenters themselves. They also assess scientific reviews in leading specialist journals. They conclude that animal-based research into cancer, dementia, heart disease and Parkinson's has been a 'wasteful and futile quest' - one that has failed to advance the cause of human medicine.

They call on the charities to end their funding of animal research in favour of non-animal methods that are directly relevant to people. These include the use of donated human tissue and organs, microdosing, computer modelling and imaging technologies.

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)