Glasto is in for a special treat this year - the Young Greens  will be helping 3 'villages' to run sustainably.  Which is what festivals are all about: modelling an alternative lifestyle and set of values.  Why else do we go to festivals if it isnt for a dose of how things might be if we could only set aside corporate-powered materialism...?  Go Young Green Glasto!!

Welcome and apologies

Well hello and welcome and thanks for opening this...we haven't exactly been conscientious in writing this blog!   Just too too busy. The reason we are so busy is that we are running Green campaigns, particulalry in the run up to May's General Election.  Have a look at Shan's blog http://shanoakes.blogspot.co.uk/ , fb and the Green Party sites for what we are doing.

So here's a start: a word about our lovely eco-house project in York - Fairfax Corner.   

The house continues to welcome families and groups  - more and more returning year after year.

If you haven't yet stayed at Fairfax Corner, it's a treat in store: cosy, spacious, generously kitted out, table tennis in the cellar, central and away from noisy roads.  People say its a home from home.  We used to live here ourselves when we worked in York and it still has most of our book collection in it because we have moved to a much smaller house!   These, of course, are available for guests to read.
We hope you visit Fairfax Corner one day!

Green Party Conference Aston Uni Birmingham this weekend...Equality and Diversity  

We are dedicating activity on this site to promote Shan's bid for the number one position in the list for the candidates for the Euro elections in 2014

Shan has a separate blog which can be found here  She also is running a Facebook campaign page "Shan Oakes No1 for Europe"

You may also follow @shanoakes on Twitter

Why vote Green?

Just unearthed this interview by Winkball a couple of years ago. Of course today the main issues would be casino banking, cuts to jobs, pensions and services - and yet more devastation of the planet.

LATER AMENDMENT - this link is now not working! apologies to those who tried!!

Job losses in Yorkshire - letter to Yorkshire Post

Iwrite further to your article, ‘ Recession fears grow with wave of job cuts inregion’ (8^th Feb).  The loss of bank jobs is, of course, very sad for the employees concerned, but unsurprising in the currentclimate of takeovers and megacorporate rule.   Ethical banks, on theother hand,  such as Triodos,  the Cooperative  Bank  andthe Ecology Building Society in Baildon are doing very well.  More andmore people are looking for ‘good’ banking.  Perhaps redundant bank staffcould consider starting up or supporting  the growth of local creditunions which will deal transparently and fairly with local people’smoney. 

Localauthority cuts are due to misguided government policy which  results incuts to services for the most vulnerable, as well as a reduction in taxreceipts and spending – a lose lose situation.

 Regardinga traditional firm such as Oakworth,   no doubt they make good qualityproducts which could be used to improve energy efficiency , such as double andsecondary glazing.  A shame that they were trading with one major customerrather than lots of smaller clients.  All these job losses boil down tothe need to start rebuilding relationships in communities instead of allowingourselves to be run by  corporates and multinationals.  

Nowthe Bank of England has announced a new batch of quantitative easing (£50bn orso),  and the Green New Deal Group  is calling for such cash to beinjected into a programme of green investment to support badly needed renewableenergy and energy efficiency projects. Rather than handing the money over tothe banks, who then sit on it and refuse to lend, green QE would put money intothe wider economy - creating thousands of new jobs, improving energy securityand tackling climate change at the same time.

Shan Oakes

Green Party (Hulland East Riding)

Turbines versus oil wells on the Wolds

I 've been asked by BBC Radio Humberside to discuss theissue of wind turbines – again  (we Greens get a little bit annoyed whenwe are asked only about environmental issues when we have the full range ofeconomic and social policies).  Anyway, to get to the point -  EastYorks Council (ERYC) is wanting to make the Wolds an area of outstandingnatural beauty (AONB) in order to stop wind farm applications there.  Ifind this incredible.  Not that I don’t think the Wolds are beautifulbecause I do.  It’s the fact that ERYC doesn’t want wind turbines, butthey don’t mind oil drilling!  They have agreed to let a Canadian oil firmstart exploratory drilling near Walkington!   It’s ironic becausewind turbines harness free clean energy, and polls tell us that most peopleapprove of them and  like how they look, whereas  oil is a fossilfuel (carbon laid down millions of years ago) which produces CO2 when burned,which  is responsible for  climate change  - which is killing150,000 people a year (World Health Organisation).  How crazy isthat?  Or don’t they/we mind because the people dying are a long way away?

Oil drilling : Yorkshire Wolds

Letter to Beverley Guardian:      ' Oil's not well on the Wolds '

We wrote  to object in the strongest possible terms to East Riding Council regarding proposals for oilprospecting on the Yorkshire Wolds.  The Green Party,  alongwith  Friends of the Earth (FOE) and other well-respected organisations,  campaign, on the basis of careful research,  for  developmentand  use of renewable energy and fuel conservation instead of the furtherexploitation of fossil fuels.   We havehad a century’s addiction to oil  - and we must now wean ourselvesoff this addiction, as oil becomes harder and harder to find and toextract.  There are excellent alternatives which must be embraced insteadof resisted.

Since the use of oil is clearly contradictory to CO2reduction,  permission for exploratorydrilling should neverbe granted on those grounds alone.  In addition,  the Wolds are andshould be considered  an area of outstanding natural  beauty,and should not be subjected to blots on the landscape such as filthy, noisy,smelly, toxic  and brightly  lit oil extraction plants.  Windturbines would be far preferable in all respects...andat least, with those, you can SEE what is going on.  Mining and drillingunderground is particularly dangerous because it can have unexpectedconsequences:    ‘ fracking’  was apparently responsiblefor an earth tremor in the Blackpool area.  Underground water courses canbecome adulterated .  If this exploration were to be  ‘successful’ the resource would be drained and then the company would move on todespoil other sites, leaving a wasteland behind.  Unfortunately, the lure ofthe huge profits for the companies and their partners leads to them workingvery hard to get agreement for this appalling activity.  Think of mountain top removal for coal  in the United States.  Where will it end?  How can industrial activity of this kind becontemplated in the Wolds?  There ARE alternatives – as usual, we have tochoose.

The ludicrously short timescale of ‘consultation’ in thiscase is yet another cause for concern. It suggests that both the Council and  the company concerned have little regard for local residents’ views.  Residents in nearby villages receivedletters only two or three days before the initialplanning meeting (at which the decision was deferred). 

To allow this proposal for oil prospecting to go ahead wouldbe a gross abnegation of responsibility on the part of ERY Council, both in relationto current citizens and to future generations, so please let your electedrepresentatives (both in the Council and Parliament) know your feelings on thisissue.

Shan Oakes

Green Party

Hull and East Riding

Letter to Ugandan President Museveni

I am joining Friends of the Earth Uganda (NAPE) in their campaign to protect Uganda's unique heritage.

 We lived in Uganda for a few years (2001-4) and saw how beautiful it is  - although we were aware of how much of it had already been deforested. Please don't be tricked into ruining your wonderful country for another short term commercial modernist 'solution'.

We visited the Ssesse Islands and know that they are a fantastic tourism resource - but not if they are turned into monoculture plantations (the products of which are boycotted by growing numbers of people). Please support permaculture instead.

 Please consider the long term future and the integrity of the age-old respect humans had for the land.  Monocultures are dangerous - we need to protect biodiversity. At last many people are beginning to realise this (but our politicians do not as they are blinkered by vested interests)

We live in the UK and this country has been thoroughly despoiled by too much 'development'.  The grassroots is now trying, through the Transition movement (now taking off worldwide), to relearn the old values which are not just about profit.  

Please also see the international Earth Charter which lists the values and principles we need for a sustainable world.

In Uganda you know what it is to fight against oppression; this commercial oppression must be opposed.  Please stand up for what's right.

Letter to Beverley Guardian - hypocrisy

Dear Sir,

A meeting has been called in Beverley  this Friday 25^thNov at 2pm  about increasing homelessness and  lack of jobs in thearea (for detail call  874096).  Considering the ConDem policies ofblaming/punishing the poor (by cutting public services and pensions)  forthe sins and greed of the banks  and corporations ,  it’s a bit richthat our MP has expressed concern about the issues and may attend thismeeting.  Unfortunately we can’t be there,  but if we were, we wouldbe asking him exactly how he thinks that his turbo-capitalist policies aregoing to help.   It’s the government’s job to understand the bigpicture and act accordingly….but all it is doing is promoting business asusual.  It’s repeating the mistakes of the 1930s.   It’s so tiedin with the toxic financial, commercial, energy and military ‘establishment’ that it can’t accept that things have to change radicallynow (in light of the crises in oil, most other resources, climate,  economy,ecology and society)  to promote  local economies and localsustainability – as in the Transition Towns initiative ( and there is now alocal group) and explained by the Green Party deputy leader  next ThursdayDec 1^st at Norwood Methodist Church, 7.30pm.   

The Government will say it is trying to promote ‘growth’ (iesupporting the CITY of London,  big business and more globalisation - the very things responsible for global physical and economic overheating, wars for resources, arms proliferation,  etc.)  It isblinkered,  to say the least.     Einsteinsaid:     ‘We can’t solve problems by using the same kindof thinking we used when we created them’.  We are overdue for a big(positive and exciting) change in our thinking.

We do hope that others will make these points at the meeting   (as well as trying to find ways to patch up the expandingholes in the local economy and services)

sincerely

Shan Oakes

East Riding  Green Party

St Pauls and the protest

Dear St Paul’s ,

Congratulations on coming to thedecision  not to invoke legal means against the protesters. 

Anyone who thinks at all aboutwhat’s going wrong (worldwide) can see that the protesters are right and arespeaking up for people and planet against the destructive and overweening power of the banks and their ilk - which have squatted for too long in theCity,  silently manipulating the policy of this country - with enormousand terrible global impact.  

This is a critical moment inthis planet’s history,  and St Paul’s is centre stage.  I’m not aChristian (because I think religions divide people),  but  I admireJesus the man for standing up for the weak, the poor and for justice.  Ithink it’s very clear which side Jesus would be on in the current conflict...

Surely now is the time forreligions to stand together, be brave and clear,  and tell the world offinance with its parasitical pawn politicians  what they think ofit.  For a start, David Cameron should do a U turn and, against the City’swishes,  support the ‘Robin Hood ‘  tax on financialtransactions.  How can this country hold its head up when our primeminister won’t even climb onto the moral high ground in Europe?

Sincerely,

Shan Oakes

Beverley, East Yorkshire

Ithaca - solar panels

Vathy,  the capital of Ithaca, the legendary  home of Odysseus - lots of solar water fittings.  Lovely place too!

Waking up to Greece!

We slept on the sofas and awoke (Sept 15th) as we wended our way between Ithaca and the mainland, heading for Patra on the Peloponnese.  We had a rendezvous with granddaughters on the Ionian islands (hence the trip),  but the ferries had stopped running directly to the islands as the season was over, hence going via Patra

Brindisi - ferry to Greece

Arrived Brindisi 4 ish and wandered onto the ferry.  It was a party atmosphere on board, and a warm, beautiful evening.

Train to Brindisi

Bill : early morning at Milan station on way to Brindisi.  We'd arrived on the sleeper from Paris and been treated to a most welcome espresso and pastry by Sylvain whom we'd  met and spent the night with (in the 6 berth compartment!)  We stretched our legs walking round the front of the station just before sunrise and I actually saw a rabbit dart between bushes and railings!

Young Greens - Sept Conference

Shan with Ash  Haynes and and Kieran Anderson of Young Greens at Green Party Conference, Sheffield Hallam University,  Sept 12th.

baby blackbird in hydrangea

One of this year's brood from a nest in our honeysuckle. It was a rainy day in early september and, as seems to happen at this time of year, there was a spate of wild and frenzied bird activity.

Biodiversity Man

Guy Wallbanks at the Friends of the Earth Northern Gathering in July at Haworth Youth Hostel

State schools 'not providing group worship'

'Many state schools in England are not providing group worship, despite legislation making it a requirement, a survey suggests. The Comres survey for BBC local radio found 64% of the 500 parents questioned said their child did not attend daily acts of collective worship. 60% of the 1,743 adults asked said the legislation should not be enforced.'

I agree with them and have felt this for a long time. To me, enforcing ‘worship’ is appalling and this aspect should be separated from the activities it is linked with. The activities such as getting together and story telling (as long as the stories come from all over the world), and singing are great, but not enforced ‘worship’! If we got rid of this ludicrous element in schools, there would be no need to start all the various faith schools.

Here’s my secular version of that well known hymn (my favourite when I was small), All things bright and beautiful:

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, we must care for them all….

riots (letter to local press)

Looking at TV film of riots in cities around England, we need to ask ourselves what sort of society has led to this sorry state of affairs. No one can condone the violence, looting and arson, but we do need to ask ourselves questions such as: Does our society value and promote peace and cooperation or does it value and promote war and acquisition of goods and status for the few? If the answer is the latter, then we should not be surprised at the violent and acquisitive behaviour of (a tiny minority of) young people.

The gulf between rich and poor in the UK is deeper than ever. Is this what we want? Inequality leads to unhappiness for all, both rich and poor. I have called on our local MP, Mr Stuart, to take a message to the emergency recall of Parliament that we need a real and careful review of what sort of society we want . What values does our society promote? If it promotes war (trade in arms etc), and a focus on consumer goods (‘growth’- on an exhausted planet) it will get just that, so we can only expect increasingly anti-social and fearful behaviour from everyone, particularly our young people.

Another world IS possible – but we will have to decide to make it happen. We need to really consider what we really want for ourselves and for our children.

sincerely,

Shan Oakes

Green Party