Service - what's that?

Our parliamentary representatives are in the news again due to their demands for money rather than for the service they are doing for us the subjects of this kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Our Members of Parliament (MPs) as well as our MEPs, MSPs and various other so called leaders of our society actually get paid a great deal of money. Certainly a great deal more than they themselves have designated that we the common people need to live on. The minimum wage for someone in their mid 20s is £5-80 an hour, that is £208-80 on a 26 hour week or £10,857-60 in a 52 week year (and that is before tax). Remember, this is the amount of money per anum that the MPs at Westminster have decreed is what a normal person requires to live on in the United Kingdom at the beginning of the twenty first century. And yet these self same MPs are complaining that they cannot live on a salary that is at least eight times more than this plus all the allowances and perks that they get. They are telling us that if they got more pay they wouldn't have to indulge in corrupt practices which a lot, but not all, have been doing.
We are told (usually by MPs) that MPs should be paid a high wage in order to attract good people into the role of MPs and that many of them are taking a cut in wages when they enter parliament. This argument makes me spit blood. I was always taught that the primary function of MPs is to serve the needs of the people they represent, not to make money on the back of it. But this concept of service seems to have been forgotten in relation to the governance of our country. When the Queen elects our next Prim Minister (and remember please that she is the only person who can elect HER Prim Minister) she will not take the amount of cash involved into consideration (I hope). That doesn't mean he won't be paid a very large wedge of money for the privilege of serving the Crown in this manor.
What I believe is that all elected public servants should be paid minimum wage based on a 40 hour week (they can work longer if necessary). They would need to be allowances for secretaries, researchers and the like but these should be set scales administered by a personnel department at Westminster. I am sure that it is not beyond the wit of man to sort out a system that allows people that have a true calling to serve the subjects of the United Kingdom as their MPs to do so efficiently and honestly. We should aim to get those people who are in parliament for the money out as soon as possible replacing them with those who wish to serve. I also think it could be good to have a limit to the number of parliaments any individual can serve in but this will need a bit more consideration.

That Most Futile Prejudice.

There is, on this planet anyway, only one species of human, Homo sapien sapiens. This species of human can be found in every nook and cranny of the planet from its hottest and coldest deserts to its wettest forests. One species but many races of that species. Archaeology tells us that the human species evolved first on the continent of Africa some three million years ago, quite recently in evolutionary terms. For the first two thirds of that 3 million years humans lived exclusively on and arround the African continent and in that two million years numerous geneticly diverce types evolved. Even today the genetic mix in Africa is more diverse that the genetic mix in all the rest of the world put together. This human genetic inheritance was influenced by the environment in which these humans found themselves. This is called selection pressure. The genetic makeup that is best fitted to an environment will be selected for as the holder of those genes pass them on to more offspring who survive better. This is what caused racial diversity. It produced the small, stocky, jungle dwelling Baka and the tall, slender, plains dwelling Maasai. When humans finally left Africa about 30,000 years ago, and began to occupy other more extreme environments their adaptability allowed them to evolve new racial types. Those humans who moved into the ice covered northlands needed to absorb what little sun there was around up there so their offspring who had lower levels of melanin in their skin and hair began to be selected for as they had an advantage over their darker skinned relatives (this is only one traite that was affected by the new environment.). The lighter skin of the Caucasian and the Mongol races developed in their own directions, and as the ice retreated so the opportunities for expansion were taken by the various races. Eventually humans abandoned their nomadic way of life and began to stay in one place to grow food. Because they were no longer moving en-mass the racial types that had evolved began to stabilise in particular geographical areas and the mixing of racial types began to slow. Tradition meant that you only mated within a limited geographically imposed genetic pool which enhanced the racial difference. Demands for land may have exacerbated the suspicion of the racial group over the hill, but it must be recognised that although racial difference became pronounced we remained one single species of Homo sapien sapiens.

Eight thousand or so (or should that be 3 million) years later we live in very different times. We have become migratory once again. Many of us will not die in the same place we were born. The different races of humans are no longer bounded by the geography of the planet. Our mass transport systems have overcome the most imposing of geographical barriers. We either fly over them or dig holes under them. Because of this the racial differences that developed no longer have any relevance. Caucasians can be found in every continent as can Mongols and Africans. There is an increasing incidence of interbreeding between the human races and the mixing of the various gene pools is producing a whole new, better group of humans. Indeed, as we get to the end of the first decade of the twenty first century of the common era the most futile ism is racism. The idea that one race of humans were superior to any other race of humans has always been a political concept rather than anything based in fact. It gave the race that decided that it was superior, (often white Europeans, but Orientals, Asians and Africans have also held these views) the excuse to exploit the apparently lesser races "for its own benefit." Of course those who really benefit are the "superior race" while the "inferior race" had their culture, which showed just how inferior they were, systematically destroyed and placed into museums to demonstrate how the white folk evolved to their superior status.

The destruction of the "inferior" cultures have had now come back to bite the "superior" cultures. Now that our western European model of culture has been accepted as the norm all across the planet and amongst every culture of humans (to a greater or lesser extent) the members of the so called inferior culture are doing exactly what the "superior" races said that they wanted the "inferior" races to do and taking on the superior culture. Indeed, not only taking it on but taking it over. People from the so called inferior races have taken on the challenge and have shown themselves to be equal, if not better at it than their so called superiors. Because of this some members of so called superior races have revived all the old tosh about superiority and inferiority along with the idea that these savages are going to rampage across our land rapping (white women of course, women of other races are fair game and get no better than they deserve!!!) and pillaging as they go.

The sooner we understand that racism is the most futile of emotions that bear no fruit in our modern society the sooner we can get on with evolving into a species that will cope with all the problems that face humans all across the globe. By mixing our gene pools we will be in a far better position to deal with the challenge of global warming and the like. Until we accept that we are one species under the sun and we need as many options in our gene pool as possible rather than limiting it to a narrow band of possibilities, our survival on this planet is questionable. We would not be the first species from this planet to go extinct. It has happened numerous time in the past and will continue to happen in the future. Our species has come a long way in the last two million years but if we limit our options just for vainglorious political reasons we won't have another two million years. We might not have another two thousand years!

Fascist political parties such as the BNP and NF build their policies on the concept of the separation of the races and superiority of white races. They wrap themselves in Union Flags and cymbals of Britishness most of which have names derived from "foreign" languages (Britain, for instance, comes from the Latin Britannica.) If we give these people the credence of voting them into positions of power you will be helping to destroy any hope that the human species has of surviving into the future. Their narrow minded attitude to racial mixing will not preserve but destroy our culture. Indeed, it will go a long way to the destruction of out species which will run out of vigour due to in breading and die out. Embrace the world.

Valdelavilla - Pueblo Inglés

My word doesn't time fly when you are having fun? I can't believe that it has been so long since last I did something with this blog. Anyway, I am back and at it and as the winter nights draw in I am sure I will be at it often.

A couple of times a year I go on a really astonishing get together in Spain where I spend the week talking to the most amazing people, and all in English. At the end of August I went on my eighth programme with Pueblo Inglés or English Town to Valdelavilla, a village that was turned into a hotel in the Saroia area of Spain. It is remote and beautiful and - wait for it - FREE. Yes, it doesn't cost a penny (unless you want to drink at the bar). Food wine and accommodation is provided to us Anglos (the term used for the native English speakers). All you have to do is get yourself to Madrid (which you have to pay for) and a bus pick up point.
So what do we do once on the bus? Well there are some twenty Anglos and twenty Spaniards and we have to speak to each other - however Spanish is BAND! We are all of us only allowed to speak English. The idea is that the Spaniards will have a reasonably good standard of English but lack the opportunity to practice it in a continuous way. At Pueblo Englés they get nothing else but English. So it is a total immersion experience. The main exercise is the "1 to1" which is one Anglo sitting, or walking, sometimes even swimming, with a Spaniard and talking to each other. What about? Well pretty much anything really. The important thing is to talk. I have had chats about quantum physics, bread making, the endocrine system, ham curing, theatre, both medical and the drama and loads else beside. There are also little entertainment and group sessions to work with so there is always something happening. By the end of the week you will be physically exhausted but mentally fizzing with ideas. Oh, yes, the people. Well the Anglos come from all over the English speaking world Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, UK, West Indies, India - as long as you have a high standard of spoken English you are welcome, and if you have a good accent like Geordie or Scows or Welsh or Scots then that is even better.
As for the Spaniards they come from every walk of life sucu as top exscutives, students, scientis, housewives, al with a desire or need to improve their English.

Look, give it a try and you will certainly have an experience. There are two companies that run programmes which are essentially the same as they were once the same company. Their web sites are at:

http://www.puebloingles.com/

&

http://www.vaughantown.com/

And did I mention the Rioja?

Playing Marbles

Two hundred odd years ago the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire in Greece took charge of (nicked?) a whole load of marble statuary that adorned a sacred place and brought them to London where he sold them off to the British Government who put them in the new fangled British Museum. The Ambassador was Lord Elgin, the sacred place was the Temple of Athena on the Acropolis in Athens and the statues are now called the Elgin Marbles. And the question is should they be in London or Athens. The Athenians have just built a brand new museum to house the relics that have survived from the Parthenon and the Acropolis in general, but of course they only have copies of the Parthenon Marbles, as we should refer to these sculptures, to display and they want the originals back.

What Elgin did was no different to what a lot of rich Christians did all across the world. At the time Great Britain was one of the most powerful countries in the world and its Empire was growing. The Ottoman Empire was powerful but it was Muslim and as such did not have the same attitude towards historic monuments that the Christians had so to them the pagan temples and statuary that littered the lands of their empire was just so much stone and very un-Islamic. This is also true of vast swaves of Africa half of which was Muslim and the other half regarded as simple savages with no appreciation of the fine things their culture produced. It was far better that these works of craftsmanship and high art be housed in the great museums of London, Berlin, Paris, Madrid and New York to name but a few so that civilised people could appreciate them.

And now savages, pagans and various non-western cultures want the stuff we pillaged back. And not only the artifacts that we took charge of, they want the bones of their ancestors back as well. Far to many museums have become the mausoleums for remains of people from all over the world, including their own country. Some of these remains have great importance to the cultures they were taken from. Worship of ancestors is very important and even in the cultures of the "Peoples of the Book" (Jews, Christians & Muslims) bodily remains are of great importance to the future of the soul of that person.

We have at our disposal a great range of modern technology that can make almost perfect copies of things and, to quote Terry Pratchett's Granny Wetherwax "Things that look like thing are often more like things than things!" As such we should be making exact copies of all the artifacts (things) we have taken charge off and then return the originals to their home place with an agreement that the original must be made available for examination by researchers. Those parts of the world that do not have suitable display spaces should be helped by an international body to get something built and properly staffed. And it is not only the United Kingdom that should be doing this. It seems to me that this could be something useful that the EU could be doing as most of the great Modern Empire s are represented within it - even Turkey and the Ottoman Empire will be in soon.

The human remains that we have are a different matter. They need to be returned to as close to the place they were found and re-interred using the rights of the culture from which they came as closely as possible. That means not giving pagan remains a christian burial right.

These Artifacts and human remains are to important to simply play a game of political marbles with. They matter to people and in many cases have done for a very long time.

Whoes a Stranger?

I was listening to the radio this morning and they did a bit about the Speaker of the Commons. During its progress it reminded us that we, the people who elect MPs and pay their wages via our taxes are referred to as Strangers and treated with all the contempt that can be mastered with the use of that word. So why should we be strangers in the house of commons? These people, including all the support staff, are our employees. They are supposed to be there to serve the needs of the people of the United Kingdom and yet the people of the United Kingdom are officially Strangers in their own Parliament. It is this attitude that has lead to the recent debacle of MPs allowances. Because we are regarded as Strangers they think that can do what they like without consequences. There is a great deal of talk about reform of Parliament. Proposed changes to everything from Allowances and expenses to a complete revamp of the voting system. But until "We the People" are regarded as friends within the Palace of Westminster instead of being Strangers the old aloof attitudes will prevail and our representatives, our employees, will continue to find ways of milking the system. Parliament does need certain "Privileges" in order to work properly. For instance the naming of miscreants that could not be done in the open forum of life. But these privileges are few and far between and they should all be listed for public scrutiny. If we don't place Parliament and our representatives who work there into the hands of the people who pay for it all then those people will continue loosing faith in the system and it will fall more and more into the hands of the extreme minorities, left or right wing. The question is how do we, the ordinary member of the public, make sure we get our hands on the power to keep parliament on the straight and narrow. We must take an interest in what is going on at Westminster. We must contact our MP regularly with our thoughts and suggestions along with a demand to justify themselves in what they are doing. If one or two people do this they will be regarded as cranks, but if one or two hundred people do it regularly then it will become something of importance. And if every one of there constitutes got in touch at least once a year it would really get them thinking. Try it, all you have to do put your MPs name, their constituency, The Palace of Westminster, London on an envelope then use it to send your comments in. Have fun.

Done and dusted - till the next time!

So the votes were counted and I did not become Mayor of North Tyneside. I did achieve most of the objectives I set out to. I got some 5000 1st. and 2nd. preference votes. The membership of North Tyneside Green Party has doubled, old, dormant members have revived their interest in Political Ecology and we are starting to get through to people. I am saddened by the fact that so many people in North Tyneside voted for Fascists as a protest (I know it was a protest vote as a large number of people whose 1st pre. vote was for me gave their 2nd pref to a Nazi and I picked up a large number of 2nd pref. voted from fascist 1st prefs.)
The Green party has a great deal to do although we have done a good job of germinating a good crop of seeds across North Tyneside. Now they need to be nurtured. Brought into the light. Shown tender loving care so that when a Green candidate stands as Elected Mayor in 2013 we will be up there as contenders. You can still join us in the work we will be doing within the communities of North Tyneside. Go to our web page which you will find on the links column next to this blog to see what we are doing. Every one's ideas and contributions are welcome. And if anyone just happens to have a spear couple of grand stuffed into a matrices they don't use then North Tyneside Green Party will be happy to put it to good use, because at the moment we are skint.
So, here we go for the Council elections next May

ya-hooooooooooo!

Re-name the Whitley Bay Playhouse.

As the opening of the Whitley Bay Playhouse draws near I would like to put my support to the proposition that it is re-named the "Tom Haddaway Theatre" in honour of the local playwright who used to live just round the corner. Tom wrote a range of play that reflected the life of people in the north east and should be recognised for his achievements in this way. Of course it would be better to have two different theatres, the Playhouse and the Tom Hadderway but until people once again get the theatre going habit and fill the seats every night the survival of the one theatre is doubtful let alone two of them.
I really do not understand why people do not flock to live theatre. It is the most sublime of experiences and each performance is unique and will never be seen again. I realise that a lot of people see going to the theatre as stuffy , middle-class, even boring and think that you have to get dressed up for it and make pompous comments. Nothing could be further from the truth. Okay there are certain conventions such as being in your seat before the curtain goes up, but there is good reasons for this. If you go in once a film has started the only people you disturb are the other members of the audience. At a live theatrical event you will also be disturbing the people on the stage. Getting to the theatre is a small price to pay for the sublime experience you will have once their. It is not by accident that the masks of comedy and tragedy are used as the image of living theatre, it will engage you in both and every emotion in between. It is great so please, whatever the Whitley Bay theatre is called, frequent it long and often. Enjoy it and it will survive. Don't use it and it will die.

Today's the Day!

So this is it, 4th. June 2009. Election day. The day when people will decide who will be Mayor of North Tyneside for the next few years, and yes folks that could be me. I must admit that when I started out on this campaign I was fairly sure that I would not win and if I got my deposit back I would have done well. That was before what happened in Parliament and our MPs were shown up to be a bunch of money grabbing ya-hoos and our prim minister a useless dumpling. I am almost certainly going to get a good proportion of votes from people wishing to punish the Westminster lot. Of course when elected I will serve but I cannot help but feel, well, something that the vote will be influenced by the wrong things. What should affect the vote is John Harrison's, Linda Arkley's and Nigel Huscroft's past performances. People should refuse to vote for either of the two Nazi parties that are on offer just on principal. But most of all I really hope that people actually just vote. That people go to the polling booth and put a mark on the ballot paper even if it is to ruin it. A few thousand spoilt ballot papers would send such a message. Staying at home and watching the television will not have any impact at all. It will simple give critics power to say that the people of North Tyneside a lazy and the like. By tomorrow evening we will all know the result so for the last time in this campaign -

VOTE GREEN

VOTE MARTIN COLLINS

Veterans?

I received an e-mail last week asking me to support a campaign to provide all veterans of military campaigns with free travel passes. I had a problem with this. Although it sounds very good on the surface what worries me is who is a veteran? During world war two my father was a member of the Auxiliary, later the National Fire Service and so spent all that war protecting the homes and families of the members of the armed forces. Although stationed at Chelsey he could be sent anywhere in the country at a moments notice leaving my mother and sister at home in Chelsey. He got none of the perks of those in the military because he was a civilian with civilian rations and the like. Was he a veteran of the second world war or not. He got no medals or great parades he just got on with the job of making sure that there was a green and pleasant land left for the military to come home to. There are a large number of people who were (are) in the same position as my father found himself in, should they be denied free travel? The situation with the Gurkhas has brought the subject of veterans to public view and it is good to see that justice has been done by them. Anyone who puts their life on the line for this country should automatically have the right to live here in the Islands of the Mighty. What we must do is be very sure just who has put their life on the line for us.

While on the subject of war heroes it is amusing going on tragic that the Nazi BNP has chosen to use the image of a Spitfire on their Euro-election leaflet. The amusing bit is that apparently the pilot of this particular Spitfire is Polish.

Reforming of Butterflies

So another week of canvasing and glad handing comes to a somewhat soggy end and I am really tied. Still this next week is also full of things to do including a hustings meeting at the Memorial Hall, Wallsend on Tuesday. The hot topic on the doorstep - transport- no; education - n0; what else but the activities of the ya-hoos in Westminster. I wouldn't mind if it was only damaging them but the do-dos is rubbing of on us all whether we be honest or corrupt. What does not seem to have been recognised is that the actions in Westminster and the economic crisis are both facets of the same underlying problem, consumerist economics. The acquisition of everything new, everything up to date no matte what the consequences to the would - and it is an effect on the world that it is happening. It is like that old maxim which came out of "Chaos Theory" that a butterfly flapping its wings in Borneo will have an effect on Hurricanes in North America (which is not actually the butterfly effect - that is another part of chaos theory to do with strange attractors and the pattens that they create.) But I digress, growth economics, to work properly requires "boom & bust" in order to operate. The economy is like a big bole of froth with bubbles being recruited to the mass from the bottom and as the rise and coalesce into bigger bubbles eventually they will burst so the new growing bubbles have room to take their place. And yet we are told that our economies can just grow and grow with not "boom & bust." Someone out there is living in Cloud Cuckoo Land.
And while I am at it how about those MPs? Well I would start my making sure that ALL elected Representatives are payed minimum wage; after all it is what we are told is all wee need to live on by these smug MPs. There should be a transparent form of paying for Secretaries, researchers and the like but this should be taken out of the hands of the MP. A comfortable block of flats should be created close to the Palace of Westminster for MPs to live in if they chose to. All other money matters should be as expenses claims which are fully open to scrutiny by anyone who wishes to see them and given approval by an independent adjudicator. Of course all of this would need to be fine tuned but I am sure you get my drift.
As to Parliament itself we should reduce the number of constituencies to 250 and elect 2 MPs to each constituency one by "First past the post" the other by proportional representation using the same vote for both MPs. I would get rid of the Lords replacing it with an elected Senate of 200 wholly elected by proportional representation every 5 years.
Of course it would be better to abolish the Westminster Parliament all together and replace it with an English Assembly meeting in York, and a small UK Assembly elected by the English, Scots, Welsh and, for now, Northern Irish, to deal with UK issues.
It is not going to happen of course. There are to many people with interests in keeping the statous quo in place. Still, I shall keep plugging away at it and eventually people will hear the truth and really go Green.

Please Don't Vote for Nazi !

So the first few days of the official campaign is behind me and things are going well - weather accepted. I have been knocking on doors and meeting folk on the streets of North Tyneside and have been getting good reactions all round. I have also got a bit in the local newspaper about the launch on Tuesday of the Manifesto. There is also a video of the event on the papers web page so go to www.newsguardian.co.uk and you should find it.
There are six candidates hoping to be elected Mayor, me the Green, a Conservative, a Liberal Democrat, a Labour and two, yes two Nazi candidates. It is worrying that the far right wing of our politics seems to think that it can sustain two of these shameful groups. What is worst is that there are people in North Tyneside will actually vote for these right wingers. Some of these people will hold truly felt National Socialist views but most will be under the illusion that these parties offer something other than suppression and hatred to the communities of North Tyneside. They play on fear. Fear of the different. Fear of the new. Fear in general. They wrap themselves in the Union flag while not even knowing the difference between the flag of Great Britain and the flag of the United Kingdom. They claim to be democratic parties but please remember that Hitler and his German National Socialists were elected to power by the German people; I can only hope that the people of North Tyneside have better sense than to vote for these home grown extreme right wing parties, they will not solve our problems.

Growing Oak Trees (or Ash, or Beach, or Apple!)

The nomination papers are in and the manifesto has been launched so it is all go for the next few week knocking on peoples doors and shaking their hands and, most likely, getting rejected. That is fine. It is par for the course. At this point I usually make a botanical reference; something like mighty oaks from acorns, which are all very good and make the point to an extent, but these allusions fail to recognise is all the other things that go into making that oak tree emerge from that acorn. The first and most important is water. The water of life that will make the dry seed swell and begin the process of the single fertile cell that will eventually become the oak tree of division. One cell becomes two which become four, then eight until the number of cells in a mature oak are in the trillions, but all from one single fertile cell. The political revolution that we Greens are trying to grow also began with a single idea. For me that was E. F. Schumacher's "Small is Beautiful" and membership of the Ecology Party. By the time I discovered all this the seed was beginning to develop and had already put out its first tap roots in the shape of the 1979 general election when 50 brave Ecology Party members scraped together the cash and supporters to stand. Things have moved and grown and morphed and today we have the Green Party which is a burgeoning sapling with strengths and weaknesses. This sapling will continue to grow because it is sitting in a clearing of politics. All around it the Gray parties have painted their grey leaves cosmetic green but they are stunted and crippled by the cosmetics they are wearing. It is only the Green party sapling that presents clean green leaves to the light of day and so it soars into the canopy. But we have to be cautious of squirrels and beavers that could cut things down and kill this young oak. It is the beaver of apathy and the squires of complacency that will kill the Green sapling. Political Ecology has a lot to offer but it needs you to help it grow and prosper. It needs you to vote for it. It needs you to understand it. in fact

it needs you.

Things and stuff!

The Game is Afoot!
And so it begins. The campaign proper to get me elected as Mayor of North Tyneside. The nomination papers are filled in and just need to be approved on Tuesday morning and it is all official. Later on Tuesday we launch the "Manifesto for Green Transition in North Tyneside" which you can read by going to the North Tyneside Green Party web site which is at the side of this posting.
Over the next three weeks I and other Green Party members will be doing the rounds asking you if you would support us at the election. One question we do not ask is if you are going to vote for me; that is between you and the ballot box and you just wouldn't believe the rigmarole you have to go to to break the secrecy of the ballot box - high court judgments and the like. But it is important that people see their candidates or their representatives; there is not a hope in hell that I could knock on every ones door and find you in so the people representing me are vital. The Green Party is still quite small in North Tyneside but we are always looking for people to participate in our activities (even if they don't join the party) so if you fancy it you know how to get to our web pages - it's at the side.

Vote Green on June 4th

The House.
The old caretakers house at Richardson Dees School, Wallsend, has been given an Eco Make-over. In its self this is fine but there is a telling comment from Labour Mayor John Harrison. He is quoted as saying "This project is unique in the North East." Why? Okay we need to find ways of converting our old housing stock to modern energy efficient truly Green units that people enjoy living in. So now we have one such house in North Tyneside; that's ONE! Across North Tyneside there are hundreds such houses. Surely if it is even just to do research there should be a few more of them dealt with than just this one. There is a big job to do here and our housing cannot afford to be treated in the cosmetic way it has in the past. This have got to be done thoroughly and fast.

Nomination Time.

It is that time when I must obtain my 30 nominees for the Mayoral candidature. No problem there this is as it should be. What I do not think should be is the £500 deposit a candidate has to pay before they can stand in this local election. This is a barrier to local people standing as Mayor unless they are rich or supported by a political party. There could be someone out there in North Tyneside who would be a brilliant leader of the Borough but could never put themselves forward because they do not have the cash. It would be good if everyone wrote to the Electoral Commission whose web page is at http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/ and demand that all future local elections should be deposit free and so open to anyone who can muster the number of names of the People of the Borough.

Local politics are important but if they are only the province of political parties and not accessible to all then there is no point in them so we may as well abolish them and stop wasting money on them. The only way they can remain relevant is if local people participate in them, in the very least voting in them. Even if it is only to write "abstain" on the ballot paper it will have an effect (epically when a deposit can only be returned if a candidate gets over 5% of the vote cast - including "spoilt" papers.

So, on the 4th June go and vote - preferably for the Green Candidate - in North Tyneside that's me and Shirley Ford, Iris Ryder & Nic Best as the Euro candidates.

It is important!

Your X is important.

Come the Green Revolution

I have just heard something really funny on the radio. David Cameron, out dear leader in waiting, said that we need a completely new concept of government - which is true and not the funny bit. The funny bit was that he thinks that he and his Tory cronies are the ones to achieve this monumental - I could say revolutionary - change. The only thing that would be different if Dave and his Tories took over from Gordon and his Tories would be the accent of the Prim Minister. Even the LDs would not provide the revolutionary change we need, not only in this country but across the world. There is only one political faction (with lots of parties working together) and that is the Green Parties of the world. Let's look at the facts, Communism failed, Capitalism is in the process of failing, Nazism is making a comeback but who in their right minds would want fascism as their mode of government. So that just leaves Political Ecology to provide the way forward. Have no doubt this will be a revolution on a global scale and not everyone will survive.
One aspect of political ecology that is not discussed very much because most of us find it scary is death. We talk about things such as population control but we must remember that we will all die eventually, death being an essential part of the life cycle. Without death there would be no food. Every living thing on this planet is dependent of dead stuff for its nourishment. Even plants which can photosynthesis and so fix carbon into glucose are dependent of the decay of other living things to provide the components for life. Most of the things we humans eat are dead or dieing. Even the most rigorous Vegan will be eating plants that are alive. Most salads are alive when we eat then. So with this intimate chain of life and death we must start to come to terms with death and the fact that the world as it stands is heading for a great extinction which is very likely to include us Homo sapiean sapiean. But we are a supremely adaptable species. Evolution is our game, we are up there with the Rats, cockroaches and gulls as the supreme survivors, but not if we refuse to accept that a big change is going to happen whether we like it or not so we must change now. and the change we must make is laid out via Political Philosophy.

Educated, nuclear roundabouts.

This is going to be a three headline blog so please read on, the clue is in the title.

Education.
During the week the usual flow of stuff has come out of the teaching unions conference some of which is sensible some daft but all of interest. The idea that teachers should get a 10% pay rise may at first seem like one of the daft ideas but when you think about it it really isn't. Considering what we ask of them there is nothing that they do not deserve (though getting it is a different matter entirely). But if you agree that they deserve such consideration then they should also agree that getting rid of those teachers who are not up to the job is of equal priority. Yes I realise that this may well cause problems finding enough teachers to fill the gaps, especially as I would like to limit the number of pupils in a school to 500, but it need to be done. We should also look at how to get people to fill the gaps left by this purge of rubbish teachers. And then there is the question of defining what constitutes being a rotten teacher. Well one thing is sure, I am not going to solve this in this brief paragraph.

Nuclear Power Stations.
So the proposal to have a whole range of "new" nuclear power stations has been published by our dear government and Hartlepool and Cumbria are on the list. Now I have a problem with nuclear power stations and especially with this term "new." Yes, okay, they will be new in a bricks and mortar kind of way, but from a technical point of view they are the same old dirty technology we have always used so that we can make bombs. So please object to these monsters that will not help with global warming only produce a range of different problems our children will have to solve.

Roundabouts.
North Tynesides Dear Mayor John has proposed that the roundabouts close the Tyne Tunnel are going to need to be upgraded or the new tunnel will simply allow you to travel faster between traffic jams. He does not seem to have understood that is is the number of cars on the road that is the problem not the road. It would be better to spend the money on car-pooling schemes and improving public transport than on flyovers over roundabouts.

Brick walls break whilst willows bend.

So an advisor to Gordon Brown has had to go because he has sent naughty e-mail to a political blogger. A ministers husband was caught out watching porn on government expenses. People throughout the Westminster and Whitehall communities are "adapting" the rules to they own financial advantage. Bending the rules seems to be a popular pursuit, but only, it would seem, to achieve self aggrandisement. When the rules need to be bent a bit in order to help people then our employees in Westminster & Whitehall do not seem to be interested.
An example of this are the daft fishing quoter's that are imposed upon out fishermen. Now I do believe that some form of control is required in respect to the health and well being of our oceans, but they need to be sensible ones. We have got to get rid of stupid rules that mean that dead fish that, if landed, would put a boat "over quota" are dumped. Everything that is trawled from the sea and killed should be landed, recorded against that boat and used. Trying to keep things alive should be the prime objective but the methods used to take fish in general doesn't allow for such. We are not allowed to do this because of the rules - so bend them. Bend them in the same way that the Spanish do. In Spain virtually everything that comes out of the sea is eaten, and superb it is too.
There are many things in our society that with a little bit of flexibility applied in a sensible way could improve our lives while still maintaining the rule of law on which our society is based.

Dropping the Mask

Last night at the Jazz Cafe in Newcastle I stood in front of a crowd of people and presented some of my poetry. Now I have been before an audience numerous times before and apart from the nerves that any performer should feel before going on stage I have never had a problem. But last night I was really nervous. I put this down to the fact that it was my own work that I was performing so in a way I was putting myself up there for people to see. I could not hide behind a character or another writer, it was all me and that is what I found most frightening. I do not as a rule put me out there. I am shy, people frighten me, so it is good to have a character to hide behind. As a character I can, and have, done all sorts of thing that as a real person I could never do, or be. I have been a King and I have murders kings. I have been a peasant, a squire, a lord, even a God. I have made love with women and men that I would never have a chance with in real life. But last night it wasn't a character it was me.

It was a good feeling last night and I think that it will a good rehearsal for the Mayoral contest that is coming up. Between now and 4th. June I am going to have to present me to the voters of North Tyneside. If I don't, if I try to present a character, they will see through it and I will not get the vote I require to start the process of Greening North Tyneside. We will be stuck with the same old cosmetic greenery that people are fobbed off with because it is trendy.

Next week the nomination papers are out and I will be looking for 30 people to put their names to it and trying to find £500 for the deposit. Yes, there is a deposit. So if you are on the dole like I am, and you do not have a party machine to back you up, which I do have, then the chances of you being able to stand are remote. So much for democracy eh!

On the 5th. May at 1 o'clock at the Monkseaton Arms pub we will be launching my Mayoral Manifesto, if you fancy coming along you will be most welcome.

1984 - 2009? ! ?

Last night I went to see the People's Theatre production of 1984. It was tremendous. The production captured the essence of the book to a degree that is rare in stage adaptions of book. It showed the Delmer of Winston Smith perfectly. But what was most striking was how a story written in 1947/8 could be so relevant to what is happening today. We are increasingly living in a "Big Brother" world with CCTV cameras watching us all the time, the state monitoring our movements in and out of the country and even monitoring our on-line activity (hallo special branch ;-} ). It was all in 1984. and when O'Brian, the party boss in the play who Winston and his lover Julia turn to for help, explains what they can expect now that they had declared against "The Party" could have been the basis of the al-Qaida recruiting speech - or any other terrorist recruiting gambit for that matter. It was a chilling experience made even more so by the realization that all of this has been out there for the last 55 years and instead of rejecting it in the real world we seem to congratulate ourselves for accepting it. We have turned "Big Brother" and "Room 101" into TV shows. We have watched spy cameras proliferate in our streets, shops and places of work and accepted their presence with very little in the way of questioning who is at the other end of the camera cable. We use call phones all the time without thinking how easy it is to pick up the radio waves that carry the messages and listen in. Also how easy it is to pin-point where an active cell phone (or sat-nav) is. Biometric identification is a requirement if we wish to travel beyond these Island and our DNA is increasingly finding its way onto databases - legally or otherwise.

1984 gave us a warning all those years ago which we seem on the whole to ignore. Now is the time to stand up and be counted and say

"Down With Big Brother."

"Down With Big Brother."

"Down With Big Brother."

"Down With Big Brother."

"Down With Big Brother."

G8 + G12 = Zero Change - and even more hot air.

I have been resisting for week but the time has come when I have got to say it! I feel that with the G20 looming I can no longer hold back! We have Gordon Brown, Barack Obama and the rest of them trying to put all the things that caused the cock-up in our economic system back into place instead of replacing it with something that would actually work. They keep saying that there is no alternative to re-establishing growth in our economics, that we have to "save" the banks and all the other bull-shit that goes with it. The other parties grimble and grumble about what Brown is doing but do not offer anything that is a true alternative, only alternating ways of spreading the cash to achieve the same result, economic growth.

There is one political Party that has for many years been saying that the Growth orientated economic policies of the Grey parties (That is the coalitions of Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Scots Nationalists, Welsh Nationalists, Unionists, Irish Republican, BNP and UKIP) and that is the Green Party. We Greens have been saying that Growth economics will fail for a very long time but no-one wanted to listen. So now the latest collapse has happened I feel that we can safely say, loudly and clearly;

We Greens Told You So!

The problem is that saying this gives me no pleasure what so ever, well, maybe a little bit, but not much. I would far prefer that at the G20 next week some government stands up and puts on record that what has gone before is dead and what they should be doing at that meeting was putting in place the new way forward, The Green Way Forward. Of course this wont happen because there are far to many people with fingers in the pie who would loose their power if things changed and it is power that is important to these people. Money is only a means to gain power. And we all have been infected by this accumulation of power Grey or Green it is just that we Greens have tried to be honest about it and offer up sensible alternative ways of living which are often derided in the press or have all the guts sucked out of and then adopted by the Greys as a cosmetic green policy that will have absolutely no effect what so every in the long run.

So please, everyone, can we stop messing about with economic systems that we know don't work and start putting into place the one that will, the one that is Green through and through and not just cosmetic.

Life! Astonishing isn't it?

So we are to be confronted with TV ads for things sexual. I realise that that is an odd ways of putting it but I couldn't think of a better way. What I am on about is the news that adds for condoms and sex advice establishments are to be aired on television and some of them are to be shown before the watershed so kids will get to see them. And quite right to I say, kids of today are TV literate people and can handle it. I have a feeling that it is the parents who can't. It is the classic situation of "that" time when you have to sit down with your little boy or girl (who have usually developed into a street wise teen by then) and talk about the birds and the bees. Numerous fine comedy sketches have been created around this situation over the years and I am sure that such will be the case way into the future; adults find it difficult to talk sex with young people and young people always think that they are the ones who invented it anyway so red faces all round. Get it out there, get it talked about, and not only the joys of sex but the responsibilities that go with it as well, and the tragedies.
Young people are going to start shagging as soon as they can get away with it. As soon as the hormones click in that are will be at it whenever that can. It was behind the bike sheds when I was a lad but as they don't cycle to school any more I am supposing that some other secluded place has taken on a similarly hallowed status. The stuff that we should be putting on the telly is stuff that gives girls permission to kick hard and run fast as soon as they hear the words "You'd let me if you loved me." Also to teach boy that they have responsibilities, if only to make sure they have a condom in their pocket at all times. Of course what could be on the telly for young people is far to extensive to be explored here but I am sure that you get the general idea.
And then there are the two great tragedies of sexual encounters, STDs and abortions. With the STDs we have got to get things out there and remind people that AIDS for instance could be wiped out in one generation (two at most) if we could keep our zips zipped. Not going to happen of course so we have to have the back-up situation in hand to deal with AIDS and other STDs. And then there is abortion which is often treated like a disease but isn't one, any more than pregnancy is a disease. I would like to live in a society where every pregnancy is wanted and the resulting child has a loving caring home. This is part of the Green society that I am hoping to create with the Green Party and others. Unfortunately we do not live in that kind of society. Our society can see pregnancy as an inconvenience that can be deal with. It can see it as an abhorrence that must be deal with, and these for to often. Fortunately there are enough people out there who see pregnancy as a thing of joy that should be celebrated. I find the would idea of aborting a embryo or a fetus abhorrent and as I said want to create a society where it is unnecessary. We don't live there yet so the clinics that undertake such actions have to be there. Because of that I believe that they should be out there in our society so that we can be reminded of what we do at all times. They should be on the TV, in cinemas and the Internet and not hidden away using a polite euphemism to describe them.
Until we crack the taboos that we have about matters sexual then we are not going to achieve a society that has no problems regarding Sex. After all, we are all of us the product of a sexual act, we should celebrate the fact by creating a new bank holiday of Sexual Awareness Day possibly on the 14th. February.

Cost of living!

So our elected representatives in Westminster want a pay rise of some forty thousand pound a year so they do not have to clam perks, sorry, I mean expenses of course. Who do these people think they are? Personally I believe that all elected representatives should get no more than the minimum wage, which is something like £5-70 and hour, plus any legitimate expenses. Why minimum wage you may ask. Well it was our representative in Westminster who decided that £5-70 p/h was enough for anyone to live on. Which is fine, so why do they not live on that amount? Of course, if they did have to live on the minimum wage you can bet your last dollar on the fact that it would be much higher that it is at the moment which wouldn't be a bad thing.

Bombs and Bombast!

I have just been listening to a discussion on Radio 4 about our nuclear submarines and whether we can afford them or not. As is usual in these kinds of discussions there was a pro and an anti. The pro guy kept going on about deterrents and invoked "The War" [as world war II is referred] and how Churchill was a loan voice for making our defences strong. When he was asked under what circumstances we would unilaterally use our nuclear weapons he had no answer. There is no argument that I can see that makes Nuclear weapons a sensible option. The only reason that they would be used is spite. You can not occupy land that has been nuked unless you have some way of protecting yourself. Okay, the examples of Japan which is the only county in our world that has been nuked in war can be cited but the bombs used there were as gnats bites compared to the bombs we have now.
Now I am not particularly a pacifist, and although I would prefer to do away with war I realise that we are going to need our armed forces for some time to come. I would also like to have our armed forces to be a defence and police force rather than an offence force. But where Nuclear Weapons and the ships to carry them is concerned I am implacably opposed. And it is not only me. I have had chats to a number of officers in the armed forces who say that they took an oath to protect Queen and Country which they cannot do with or against nuclear weapons. As such they would prefer to be rid of them all together.
But what about terrorists setting off a bomb I here someone ask. Well our having nuclear armed Trident submarines is not going to deter a terrorist but the resources that we have expended on these useless ships and missiles could help with a "hearts & minds" campaign.
And then there is the civil nuclear power connection. Our Nuclear Power station were originally designed to be dirty, to produce large amounts of waste that could be refined into fissile material that could be turned into bombs. This is one of the reasons why western governments are so worried about countries like Iran building Civil Nuclear Power Plants. If we are to use Nuclear Power we have to go back to the drawing board and find a way to build truly clean power stations - indeed we could do better investing the money we are wasting on Trident submarines in truly clean nuclear power generating systems. Another argument for building the submarines is to keep the shipyards going, but if we used the skills in the shipyard to create truly clean nuclear power generators then we have a win-win situation.
So, finally,

"Ban the Bomb"

Drink to me only with thine eyes

So 50p a unit of booze is going to solve all the problems of the fractured society because it will price out the kids and the piss artists and the middle classes wont actually notice. This idea has come from the governments Chief Medical Officer, Liam Donaldson - what planet dose this bloke actually live on? I have got no problem with the concept of a minimum price of alcohol. after all none of us needs to drink. It is not an essential to life and many of us don't, ever, drink alcohol. Not me, I should point out, I like a good pint of decent beer or a glass or two of fine wine. No, what worries me with this report, most of which I have not had a chance to read as yet, seems to be saying that this imposition of a lowest tariff will stop people who abuse booze from doing so. What rubbish. With kids all you will do is find that they will start steeling more of it and as for those who think they need the booze it will not stop them from getting it. People who have an addiction like that will do anything to get their fix. And with most of us, once we start drinking we carry on till chucking out time no matter what the price of a pint. No, the way to deal with the violence that goes with drinking is two fold. First thing is that kids should be taught about drinking when they are at school. It is where I learnt. I had teachers who were not working under the fear of being sued if they put temptation in front of young person. Because kids today have had no training in drink when they get the opportunity they just throw it down their neck and get drunk as quickly as they can, usually using some foul larger that no-one in their right mind would actually enjoy the taste of. The other thing that is needed is a reliable way to get home from the pub that is not going to cost a fortune. That means public transport. Taxis of course, but their prices need to be reduced (A trip that cost me £1-90 when I first arrived on Tyneside cost me £8-45 on Friday.) But the buses and the Metro need to run later even if the vehicles they use are cattle trucks. Keep people passive and there is little violence, give them transport home and they won't drive. Teach them properly and they will not destroy their health, but the idea of 50p a unit is the be all and end all of the problem is, well, naive.

Peace be with you!

Yesterday, in Luton, a bunch of people hurled insults at a bunch of squaddies who had just got home from a war that many of us dislike (two wars that many of us dislike. One in Iraq and one in Afghanistan). These people have deep felt beliefs that these wars are against them because they are Muslims and as such part of the world wide brotherhood that is Islam.
Hurling abuse at the perpetrators of war is a long and justifiable action. I have done so myself on a number of occasions starting with anti-Vietnam war demos in the 1960s and 70s. Over the years I and many others have hurled abuse at numerous countries, or I should say the leaders of numerous countries. It was always recognised that the the squaddie or grunt who is out there being shot at, on both sides, is in the true sense of the word, cannon fodder and as such should be treated as misguided friends, not the enemy.
But these people in Luton were hurling abuse at squaddies and that is where they crossed the line and are being vilified. Of course what they will say is that they are being vilified because they are Muslims and we all hate Islam and wish to destroy it. Patent nonsense of course but it is a good way of churning up feelings for Islam and getting some very dodgy interpretation of the Holy Books accepted as the way it should be. And I should say that it is not only the radical parts of Islam who do this, Jews, Christians, Hindus and even good honest atheists do it. Most religious texts are so written that they can be "interpreted" by any passing holy man who has been inspired by a God to do so. This is because they were all written down by humans rather than being brought into being by a miraculous act by a God; okay the followers of the writings will claim that the human was inspired by a (usually the one and true) God, but that human factor has made them all imperfect. A strategy by God perhaps to keep himself undefinable, remote. If I was a God I would want my message to be unequivocal and clear to everyone who read it and I would have the Godly power to make it so.
I hope that people will continue to protest at these senseless wars and all the other senseless wars that are happening now and to come, but I hope that they will aim their slogans at the right target, the governments on both sides of the wars. No squaddie or grunt has ever stopped a war, they get shot as traitors if they try, so where they are concerned silent mourning is the best way to protest in their presence, calling them names won't help but will hinder.

Please can I retire now?

So bosses are allowed to fire people once they hit 65. What is more some people actually object to this and are demanding the right to work for someone until they drop dead. Now I don't know about you but I personally can't wait till I get to retire so I can get my pension and do all the things I want to. Now I know that there are certain jobs, professions even, that are so fascinating that the people who do them just want to carry on. I mean scientist, medics people in the arts who have fascinating jobs, but just working on the line in a car factory is not my idea of fun. I is important that we allow those who have interesting jobs to do them but this can be sorted by allowing them facilities while they get - earn - their pension. Something like being an emeritus professor at a university. One of the problems is that people feel that all they have in their lives is work, paid work that is; it defines them. Some how they have nothing else in their lives so when they lose their job, either by retiring or as a result of the recession, they have nothing in their lives except day time television - a soul destroying edifice at the best of times.
People should have things to do, have hobbies, anything that has nothing to do with work - or employment as it should be called as we will always be working. Industry should be encouraged to help their employees to develop outside interests by allowing such things as sabbatical days (weeks) and company external activity groups. This would have advantages for both the companies and the individuals employed by them. By investing in these non-core activities the company will expand is knowledge base and so provide itself with some protection when the going gets tough. Employees will be both happy to retire (often as soon as possible) and still be repaired to give of their knowledge if necessary.
If we can get Industry to start thinking Green it must be as much in relation to their personnel and employment strategies as to their manufacturing or service strategies. There is a whole world of Green possibilities for industry out there but Industry needs to understand that unless they adopt steady state economics and abandon the fruitless pursuit of growth there is only one direction they can go.

Keep the Tyne & Wear Metro Public.

Last night I attended an open meeting of the Keep Metro Public (KMP) and it was fascinating. I learned a lot about what was going on and how things were set up at the moment and what was being proposed. Basically, at the moment the Metro is run by Nexus and has a "board" made up of twenty councilors drawn from the five Tyne & Wear Boroughs. This has worked very well for a long time but does not fit with our dear governments concepts so it has to be put out to tender. This has been done and there are four groups who are putting in bids. Three of them are private companies, all from abroad. The forth is the system as it stands now. They have to put in a bid up against the others and meet the criteria set by the government. Now the it would seem logical that if the present system is working efficiently then it should win the bid hands down, but that is not thinking as an economist who will only be interested in the bottom line.
One of the problems with this campaign is that it is heavily influenced by the Unions and the local Labour party and there seemed to be a bit of an idea that that is all you need. Of course the campaign needs to have a wide public base to succeed and so it is necessary to involve as wide a community base as possible. Indeed what it really needs is a healthy injection of Greenness, but then I would say that wouldn't I.
One of the things discussed was a rally in Newcastle which encompassed a wider brief of anti-privatisation than just the Metro. A provisional date for which is 18th. April with speakers from a wide range of organisations.
Before that on the 28th. March at 9 a.m. in the morning there is a lobby of the Passenger Transport Authority at Newcastle Civic Center. The is an opportunity for a bit of street theatre here. There was also talk about a Mayday rally and a stall at the Green Festival. Everything was healthy debated and at times I was surprised that a resolution of the discussion actually happened.
The last thing on the agenda was the date of the next Open Forum Meeting to which all are invited. The 7th. April 2009 at 6:00 p.m. at the Irish Center, Gallowgate, (Across from St. James Metro). Well worth a visit.

Community Cohesion?

Yesterday evening I went to a most useful meeting of North Tyneside Green Party in Monkseaton. The pub was excellent with beer that was far, far to nice to induce meetings, if you know what I mean. What we were discussing was the Manifesto for Green Transition in NT which is to go with the Mayorial campaign. I don't know if you have ever tried writing such a document but it has been a great eye opener for me highlighting both my strengths and weaknesses and giving me the opportunity to make some corrections.
A question that arose during the course of our discussions was what is "Community?" Community is a word that we Greens bandy about all the time but do we really know what we mean by it. I have my view on the concept but I am sure that there are others around that could add to the pool of knowledge. To me there are two forms of community. The first is that imposed by "boundary commissioners" as political boundaries. These include national frontiers and borough council boundaries, both of which in this part of the country have been fluid over the years, flowing between the English and the Scots, between Northumberland and Tyne & Wear and the like.
The other form of community is that defined by more natural forces and boundaries. We are all of the community of planet Earth. This planetary boundary is the most binding one most of us (and for those who argue that the Earth-Moon system is a binary planet then for all of us). However, I out to become Mayor of North Tyneside so I will leave the world domination bit aside till later and think about natural communities in North Tyneside. The borough is a political enterty and is the shape and size it is because someone decided that that was a reasonable size and shape to be governed under the Tyne & Wear County and Borough system. Wallsend has no real connection with Killingworth or North Shields or Whitley Bay but we have to work together to make things work. This doesn't mean that these "natural communities" can't still act as natural units. Indeed, it is the Green Party's fervent hope that when in power it can reinstate this community spirit making the local government an enabling body rather than one that imposes. Community, and community cohesion is a vital part of the thinking behind Political Ecology and it would be interesting to hear what other have to say on the subjects.

Cosmetic Greenness

On Saturday I went to do my normal weekend shopping at the co-op in the Wallsend Forum when I came across North Tyneside making the effort to be green and, as usual, getting it all wrong.
Firstly I have to applaud North Tyneside Council for getting the "Big Spring Clean" going and giving responsibility to the communities of North Tyneside to keep thing neat and tidy. A a Green I whole heartedly approve of this and hope to join in with the communities on their clean up days information about which you can find on their website at www.northtyneside.gov.uk under "Big Spring Clean" I assume because it doesn't actually say so.
So what was wrong with it? As an incentive I was given a very nice hessian shopping bag which I will be putting to good use once I have managed to ease the fibers out a bit. I then took a look inside this rather nice bag and found a pen and a "Rainbow Spring" toy both of which I will be making use of. But how green are they? Let's consider the pen. The barrel and pocket clip are both made of what appears to be a paper composite which is excellent as it will be easy to recycle, or even put onto the compost heap [maybe?] but the pen also is made of plastic and metal components that make it almost impossible to recycle so it will have to either be burnt or go to landfill with all the environmental consequences of these forms of disposal - and they gave away a large number of pens on Saturday.
And what about the toy? They used to be called Slinky's when I was a lad and be made of metal. This one was called a Rainbow Spring and is multicoloured and made of plastic. By the very nature of a slinky they break so there are going to be a lot of brightly coloured plastic [probably PVC ] scattered across the environs of North Tensed. Further more these springs are not of a local manufacture but have been transported half way across the world from Taiwan to brighten up out day. Somehow I don't thing they were transported in a wind powered ship to get here.
When I am the Mayor of North Tyneside I will expect the local civil servants working with me to think in joined up thoughts and make sure that a supposedly Green campaign such as the Big Spring Clean is properly thought through and if locally produced Rainbow Springs are to expensive or we cant get a fully recyclable pen then we don't give them out. The bag [which doesn't have a makers name and address on it] would have been sufficient.
This is one small incident of cosmetic greenness that occurs every day, not only in North Tyneside but throughout the country. Politicians at Westminster, Brussels, and locally think that they can say the magic word "Green" and that is that. But to be truly Green you cannot just wear a cosmetic, it has to be in your soul. And you must be prepared to make changes in your life, big and small, because if you don't it is not us who will suffer, probably not our children but our grandchildren and into their future is where the problems will occur. So, do you think only about yourself and keep the status quo or do you be generous and give your grandchildren a chance by voting GREEN.

The Journey to Green Mayor

I find it difficult to believe that I haven't done this since last May. Just as a catch up I didn't get elected in Monkseaton but I got close on 5% of the vote which, considering the vote for the tory, wasn't to bad. Then I was getting on a bus and broke my foot. Then I had to endure the "New Deal" which was a total waste of my time. Then I went down with the coffin-cold that did the rounds of Tyneside and well, it just passed.
Still, now I am back on track with this Green Mayor thing. I have even written the first draft of my manifesto. I am afraid you will have to wait a while to read it in all its glory but it will be worth it.
North Tyneside Green Party is having its next meeting on Monday 2nd. March where we will talk about strategy and membership and all the things one does at these meeting. If you would like to get involved with us then contact us [vis this or my e-mail] and I will tell you where to go.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I suppose I should make a comment about the economic mess that we find ourselves in at the moment. As a Green there is the temptation of sitting back and saying "we told you so." After all we have been saying that the economic system that is based on continuous growth will fail. The idea that economics based on continuous growth would bot go through cycles of boom and bust is patently ridiculous. Any system that grows in an uncontrolled way will eventually outstrip the supply of resources it needs to sustain it and so collapses. It happens in nature all the time. But of course economists are not scientist and do not base their theories on evidence only on the short term bottom line, which has been proved time and time again to be a bad thing to base anything upon.
So what should we be doing? What has happened to the world, from a Green point of view, is an opportunity to dump what has gone before and replace it with something new, something radical. Unfortunately all our world leaders are running around like headless chickens trying to reinstate the failed system because most of them have a personal stake in the status quo. What is needed in the long run is to put in place a sustainable economic system based on community need rather than personal greed. It would be impossible to go directly to this so we need a transition state which the present mess allows us the opportunity to take.
It is this transition state that I hope to initiate when I am elected as the Green Mayor of North Tyneside.