Ice and no action from council

I sent this letter to the Beverley Guardian today....

East Riding residents say the icy roads and pavements are a disgrace. Driffield, for example, has been even worse than Beverley. I've spoken to officers of East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC) and they say they treat 38% of the road network on a precautionary basis and an additional 12% on a ‘responsive’ basis, but little or no funding is allocated for cul-de-sacs or pavements. Meanwhile the injuries are mounting - along with all their pain, cost and inconvenience. A&E in Hull has had ‘unprecedented’ numbers of injuries and has been forced to send people on elsewhere for surgery.

The ice issue is yet another example of ERYC’s poor record in deciding on sensible and humane priorities. ERYC seems to have priorities other than residents' welfare and safety - or surely there would be plans in place for emergency situations such as this? It should be a priority to enable people to get out of their houses. There's job potential too. Plenty of people would have been pleased with some seasonal paid work clearing smaller footpaths. Maybe there is a lack of ‘special vehicles’, or maybe health and safety regulation is being allowed to get in the way of common sense? Whatever the reason, there’s no excuse for leaving residents trapped at home or risking serious injury by going out. It’s the Council’s job to sort this.

But it’s a political decision - and ERYC is Tory-dominated. Do we want to see more neglect of public service and cost-cutting in the future? It’s ironic in this context that Graham Stuart (Tory MP for Beverley and Holderness) talks of care of those who are ‘elderly, frail or lonely’ – the very people who have been frozen into their homes. Green politicians, whether on local councils, in Westminster, or in Europe, prioritise safety and welfare. For example, there are 7 Green City Councillors in Oxford, where ‘all the main roads and pavements are gritted’ (quoted from your article last week).

Let’s have more sense and fairness instead of hidebound political thinking in pursuit of ‘targets’…and empty rhetoric.

Sincerely, Shan Oakes Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Haltemprice and Howden

Why be worried about Prince Charles?

Today's Guardian's story about Prince Charles writing letters to Government Departments is a storm in a (bone china) teacup. Why make a fuss about it? PC poses no threat to what's left of British democracy. I see him as being a 'particularly famous person' and I'm therefore more interested in what he says in the light of its impact on public opinion. PC is often voicing the views of his charities. There's no doubt he makes some very good points - about the appalling implications of genetic modification ; about the need for healthy communities; about climate change, sustainability, buildings, human abuse of nature and so on. Yes, PC does have more opportunity than many of us to see the bigger world picture (and that's not to say everything he says is right) so his personal view is worth hearing... and given the same weight as anyone else's.

Greens say that the constitutional functions of the monarchy should be abolished and the House of Lords be replaced with an elected chamber. This would leave PC as a public figure much as he is now. As several people have already said above, why are govt depts so worried about it? I suggest its because his views on the big issues like GM are opposed to the grey political parties' 'Save the Corporations and Save Us' stance.
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Susan, Beverley, and the Polar Bear Rap

Susan the Polar Bear joined our mini 'Copenhagen' demo with some young activists in Beverley, Saturday.

Susan performed her own Polar Bear Rap which was very popular with some of our younger citizens who joined in enthusiastically. She also invited people to the Greens' fundraising bash at Hodgson's, (Flemingate, Beverley) on Tuesday 15th December 7.30: The Harri Watts Band, Knu, veggie pie and pea supper and a quiz - all for a fiver (£6 on the door). All welcome.

Visiting Christiania in Copenhagen

Yesterday we visited Christiania, an amazing example of alternative living. Look them up.

Leif's Seven Year Vigil

Today we met a guy Leif Poulsen, www.fredsvagt.dk who has been on a daily anti war vigil outside of the Parliament for seven years, protesting against the Afghan war. He is in touch with Brian Haw and we said we'd show the photos to Brian.

Biking in Copenhagen

This morning we got a call from Peter Levy's team, asking for an interview on BBC Radio Humberside to talk about fining people who put the wrong stuff in their trash. So we went to the Copenhagen city department which looks after recycling to see what happens here - and took the call for the interview (as you can see).




















By the time they rang, they had changed their mind and wanted to talk about proposals to make people pay to drive on motorways! Anyway we had an opportunity to say we were here for a European Green Party conference and how we had come by train, and how great the biking is here.

We took the opportunity to talk to their bike people and came away with all sorts of ideas and contacts for Hull and York.




























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The cycle supporting the arms trade must stop

A Message from Hull and East Riding Green Party to BAE Systems

30 SEP 2009

The Greens have always worked for Justice and Fairness and we want to get this message across for the general election - as emphasised at our Conference.

Greens are batting for fairness for people and planet, for the workers, and no other party is doing that. Labour have failed dismally over the last 12 years.

Freedom and justice are worth fighting for. Unfairness in the UK is rife. Take the issue of recent unjust unwinnable wars - totally supported by Labour and Tories. Iraq has already been withdrawn from. Our Afghanistan resolution at Conference says we want an immediate withdrawal of all UK forces, withdrawal of NATO forces from Afghanistan, and a regional agreement with Afghanistan's neighbours (Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan), together with Russia and China and the UN, to hold a peace conference with the aim of establishing a new Afghan government which will have the support of the Afghan people.

If the UK wants to deal with problems of refugees and alienation in our society we have to sort out our policies with our allies not only on Afghanistan but also Palestine, Somalia & the Horn of Africa.

In the context of a global reduction of war - which surely we all want - there will be a reduced need for armaments. At the moment there is a vicious cycle of political and economic pressure supporting the arms trade which supports war which supports the arms trade and so on. This cycle must stop.

Our policy is to redirect the valuable skills of the armaments industry towards progressive manufacturing - such as the complex machinery required to extract energy from the tides, the waves and of course wind.

As things stand, the UK has no manufacturing capacity in any of these areas, despite the fact that it’s a certainty that such technology needs to be on stream in a very short time. Despite the fact that the British Isles are very windy and surrounded by sea, there are zero turbines manufactured in Britain now.

The Vestas issue (600 jobs lost) illustrates the confusion successive governments have created. For decades it should have been clear that the UK should be developing and making alternative energy technology, low energy houses, trains, for example - and not buying from abroad. That's more important than an economy which is dependent on arms.

Other EU countries, including Germany, are making large scale joint investment in solar energy designed to harvest the energy in the north African Desert - an essential complement to the intermittent supply which wind energy on its own will provide. The UK is absent from this consortium.

But what does Government do? - In a policy supported by the Tories, it gives a £1 billion subsidy per year to the arms industry.

BAE is the main recipient of this subsidy, and yet BAE has already shed many hundreds of jobs in the region in the last two years. We are told there used to be 8,000 people working at Brough - now it’s 1650. As a single product manufacturer it is just as vulnerable as the car manufacturers at Cowley, Luton and Longbridge. BAE Brough, this key plant, will be the first to suffer if they're making something that no-one wants, and with no plans for retooling.

If there is a lessening of tension in the world - and let’s hope that there will be - are we ready to reap the benefit of any ‘peace dividend’? No. It seems that the old-style politicians in this country (aping the United States) lack imagination. They assume the economy needs continuing war and quest for oil, even though there is a sane, sensible and peaceful alternative.

The Green New Deal promotes green jobs, greening the economy, green energy, modifying existing houses, and public transport development. Greens would address financial injustice: eg. limit bankers’ bonuses and close down offshore tax havens, since tax evasion is, in effect, white-collar crime.

The Greens are clear about supporting ordinary people, workers, whilst challenging big business when it exploits people and planet.

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Shan Oakes:

Parliamentary candidate for Haltemprice and Howden

Tel: 01482 862085 / 07769 607710