Reading through the local papers over the weekend I was struck by the number of "clean up" days there have been throughout North Tyneside. Schools and community groups have been out dredging ponds and tidying up cemeteries in the name, according to the headlines, of being Green. Now all of this work is excellent stuff I would encourage it all out, no argument but I think that its Greenness is being misunderstood. It is not the tidying up that is the Green activity although it is good (usually) for the environment. The Green bit is the fact that it is a community activity. It is people taking responsibility for where they live. The cleaning is "fluffy bunny green" the community action is "Hard Green."
Being Hard Green is, well, hard. Although it involves putting out your recycling bin the reason why you have stuff in that bin in the first place should be considered. You may use a low emission car but to be hard green you should consider whether or not you need that car in the first place. To become a green society it is the underlying economics that have to be changed. Sustainability will change the very way our systems work. And it will, at first, be hard. But if we are to bequeve this world of ours to our grandchildren then we are going to have to do a bit more than just tidying up litter or using our recycling boxes, even though these are a very good start. And I do like fluffy bunnies.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
The Game is afoot -Monkseaton North Byelection
So here we go. I am officially the Green Party Candidate in the Monkseaton North By-election. Most people will have not the slightest clue where Monkseaton is. Indeed, apart from hitting the headlines because of some unpleasantness on its streets some years ago, nothing very news worthy happens there. It is a pleasant suburban town beside the sea just north of Whitley Bay. It has two Metro stations and a whole range of shops and houses. It is also conservative to its core. In the last local elections in May the Conservative got 2088 votes where as the Labour and Liberal Democrat didn't get half of that between them. (Lab=596 LD=397) so I have a sneaking feeling that I am not going to win this one. But you never know. There could be a reaction against the Tory toff factor and not wanting to be seen voting for the other two I may have a landslide...... look I can dream like anyone else can't I?
What concerns me about that May local election result is not the fact that the Conservative had such a large majority but how few of those who had a vote in Monkseaton North chose not to cast it for anyone. Maybe they were waiting for me to come along so that they could vote Green but somehow I doubt it. It was far more likely to be a case of "a plague on all your houses." Which is sad. This being a by-election, and at holiday time as well, the turn out is likely to be even lower than May, even with postal votes. The important question is how do we get the non-voters of May out there. Obviously once they encounter my vibrant personality they will be crammed in the polling booths eager to put their cross by my name. We shall see. But from now until the 19th. June it is just a load of pavement pounding.
And then, on to the Mayorals.
What concerns me about that May local election result is not the fact that the Conservative had such a large majority but how few of those who had a vote in Monkseaton North chose not to cast it for anyone. Maybe they were waiting for me to come along so that they could vote Green but somehow I doubt it. It was far more likely to be a case of "a plague on all your houses." Which is sad. This being a by-election, and at holiday time as well, the turn out is likely to be even lower than May, even with postal votes. The important question is how do we get the non-voters of May out there. Obviously once they encounter my vibrant personality they will be crammed in the polling booths eager to put their cross by my name. We shall see. But from now until the 19th. June it is just a load of pavement pounding.
And then, on to the Mayorals.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The Plot Flatterns - The Old Parkside School
On the front page of last weeks Wallsend version of the "News Guardian" (Thursday May 15th. 2008) it reports that views are being sought as to what should be built on the sight of a former school in Mullen Road, Wallsend.. The old Parkside school having been merged with Ashleigh school in North Shields to produce Beacon Hill all age special school. Now this merger is okay by me as it produces a community of 120 pupils which is good.
But they have asked what to do with the sight of the old school. Well what is wrong with it being a school? Since I left school in the late 1960s the trend has been to making schools bigger and bigger. Economy of scale and other similar arguments being to the fore. And yet while this increase in size has happened the standards of education have, we are told, gone down. Young people leave school lacking the skills of reading and writing and the lore of mathematics. (Which doesn't actually surprise me when they call these three disciplines the 3 R's when they are actually an R, a W and an M.) I believe that we must begin the reversal of school sizes and get back to small, and local, community based schools. Schools in which everyone knows everyone else, teacher or pupil, governor or parent.
We are told that there is a scarcity of teachers, especially men in primary teaching and anyone in Maths and Sciences. If so how are we ever going to get smaller schools and have every discipline covered? We live in a world that is wired up with optical cables. We surf the net for all kinds of information, not all of it savoury. Computers are ubiquitous. It should be relatively simple to cable up a range of small community based schools so that the specialists can teach from some other local community. This is "Thinking Globally, Acting Locally" applied to a local situation.
Now of course this would cost money. Everything costs money that's why we have to pay our Council Tax. And I will admit that I have not yet done the Maths. It would also need the co-operation of the teachers, especially the head teachers, to get this to work. Changes in the working day, week, term and year would almost certainly be needed and this will affect teachers.
How we educate our children is even more important than what we teach them. We all know that we all need to do sums, read and write, if only to by the groceries of place a bet at the bookies. But the way we get taught has repercussions all the way through our lives. If we hated the experience we will not indulge in it as we mature. If we love it we will do anything to keep the experience going. Being in a large institution where the teachers are remote and the playgrounds are rife with bullying and other unpleasantness you cannot have a positive view of "education." Small, as Schumacher said, is beautiful.
But they have asked what to do with the sight of the old school. Well what is wrong with it being a school? Since I left school in the late 1960s the trend has been to making schools bigger and bigger. Economy of scale and other similar arguments being to the fore. And yet while this increase in size has happened the standards of education have, we are told, gone down. Young people leave school lacking the skills of reading and writing and the lore of mathematics. (Which doesn't actually surprise me when they call these three disciplines the 3 R's when they are actually an R, a W and an M.) I believe that we must begin the reversal of school sizes and get back to small, and local, community based schools. Schools in which everyone knows everyone else, teacher or pupil, governor or parent.
We are told that there is a scarcity of teachers, especially men in primary teaching and anyone in Maths and Sciences. If so how are we ever going to get smaller schools and have every discipline covered? We live in a world that is wired up with optical cables. We surf the net for all kinds of information, not all of it savoury. Computers are ubiquitous. It should be relatively simple to cable up a range of small community based schools so that the specialists can teach from some other local community. This is "Thinking Globally, Acting Locally" applied to a local situation.
Now of course this would cost money. Everything costs money that's why we have to pay our Council Tax. And I will admit that I have not yet done the Maths. It would also need the co-operation of the teachers, especially the head teachers, to get this to work. Changes in the working day, week, term and year would almost certainly be needed and this will affect teachers.
How we educate our children is even more important than what we teach them. We all know that we all need to do sums, read and write, if only to by the groceries of place a bet at the bookies. But the way we get taught has repercussions all the way through our lives. If we hated the experience we will not indulge in it as we mature. If we love it we will do anything to keep the experience going. Being in a large institution where the teachers are remote and the playgrounds are rife with bullying and other unpleasantness you cannot have a positive view of "education." Small, as Schumacher said, is beautiful.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Easy being Green? ? ?(May 2008)
I am not quite sure why anyone in their right mind should want to be a "Green." It is damned hard work and you get no words of praise for doing it. The trouble is that deep inside you know that you are actually doing the right thing. You know that even though you wish that you were just about anything else, you are not and so you have to live with it, and live green with it to. So her I am in the back end of my 50s being Green in what is possibly the most politically un-green place in the country, North Tyneside. I don't mean that people up here are not "fluffy bunny" type green. They do quite a reasonable job of keeping the area clean and recycling stuff. All of which is excellent. But if we are talking hard-core Green. The Green that arises out of the philosophy of Political Ecology and deals with all the hard stuff in society like law & order, education, health or defence then it is blank wall time. So how do we Greens solve this? Although pressure groups can be effective I believe that the only way is through the ballot box and hence via the Green Party.
At the last local election in North Tyneside (May 2008) I stood as a candidate in the Riverside Ward and picked up 7.5% of the vote cast. Not bad for a start I feel. Now I am doing a by-election in Monkseaton North which will be interesting. Riverside was hard Labour and of course their candidate go in with a zonking majority. Monkseaton North is Conservative through and through so it will be interesting how things go there.
I am also going to go for the Elected Mayor of North Tyneside next year which should be interesting. Anyway, hopefully I will be using this blog to document my progress and that of the North Tyneside Green Party. All good fun and your comments, especially if you live in North Tyneside, are always welcome. The nice ones I will take to heart while any nasty ones I will have a good laugh at.
So, till my next one -
At the last local election in North Tyneside (May 2008) I stood as a candidate in the Riverside Ward and picked up 7.5% of the vote cast. Not bad for a start I feel. Now I am doing a by-election in Monkseaton North which will be interesting. Riverside was hard Labour and of course their candidate go in with a zonking majority. Monkseaton North is Conservative through and through so it will be interesting how things go there.
I am also going to go for the Elected Mayor of North Tyneside next year which should be interesting. Anyway, hopefully I will be using this blog to document my progress and that of the North Tyneside Green Party. All good fun and your comments, especially if you live in North Tyneside, are always welcome. The nice ones I will take to heart while any nasty ones I will have a good laugh at.
So, till my next one -
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