Racists and chefs

My thanks to Jim Jay for pointing me in the direction of one of the most repulsive bloggers on the planet: Michelle Malkin. Apparently some celebrity chef has had her advert pulled because she was wearing a scarf that looks a bit like a keffiyeh. This was pointed out by Malkin...


Keffiyeh


Rachel Ray

This really does fill my heart with sadness. Clearly this extremist racism underpins one of the key problems with society, especially the US, but increasingly the UK. Kids across the UK have worn these scarves since the 1980's - I think I did too - and they are back in fashion. They look good. That doesn't make them suicide bombers; or radicals that should be locked up for 42 days without charge - just in case. Neither is it poking fun at the keffiyeh.

It's just a scarf that looks good.

Get a life Ms Malkin and stop spreading your racist views across the web.

Oil shock needs urgent attention

Maidstone Green Party has called for an urgent review of transport in Maidstone with massive investment in public transport and facilities for cyclists following record breaking price rises in oil and at petrol stations. They are also calling for investment in insulation for homes and increasing local food production and its supply.

Stuart Jeffery, Green Party prospective parliamentary candidate for Maidstone: "The exponential rise in oil through the past year has been predicted for quite a while, yet government has done nothing to prepare for it. Pump prices of £1.30 for diesel are now emerging and are a direct consequence of the global demand for oil outstripping supply. People are aghast at these prices and the effect they are having on their lives.

"The world has been lied to by oil producers. Not only have estimates of oil reserves been inflated, but the inability of companies to increase extraction rates has been ignored. Despite this, demand continues to grow at 2% each year.

"I am very concerned about the effect this is having on the more vulnerable members of society. Alternative transport is in a disasterous state, especially in Maidstone, yet the only long term solution to the crisis is to reduce our oil consumption. However, time is running out to be able to make affordable changes, such as investing in public transport, local food production and its supply, and insulation for homes. The oil shock is already starting to impact on food prices, so the time to act is now."

fuel price predictions

I am surprised that the current fuel price is not hitting headlines more often and that there is not more unrest about it generally. People are complaining and some are cutting back, which is good, but given the massive rise during the last year I'm surprised people aren't marching on Downing St.

Oil hit $129 a barrel today, an all time record. Diesel is up to £1.29 at some stations in Kent, and the two seem to be using and following the same digits, quite bizarrely! Peak oil is here to stay and prices are impossible to forecast but there is certainly won't be any short or medium term let up in the rising price, although there will come a point where it can't go higher.

Certainly I wouldn't be surprised to see oil hitting $160 and diesel £1.60 by Christmas. My investment tip, buy a bicycle...

Festivals

Still no word on whether the River Festival will be saved. A few months back the Lib Dems decided that they wouldn't pay £20k for the policing of the festival and it was duly cancelled - they were happy to put £50k into supporting athletes for the 2012 olympics though.

The Big Weekend went off far better that I expected, probably due to most of Maidstone going to ground. The roads were deserted along with the town in the afternoons. Lots of frustrated Maidstone people didn't get tickets, which is a real shame. Why they couldn't just allocate them on a nearest first basis rather that a nearest bias is beyond me.

Maidstone has only really got two major festivals, the River Festival and the Mela. Rochester seems to be able to do this with much better. They start with the Sweeps festival, a weekend of morris dancing and pseudo pagan celebrations to the Green Man and Beltaine. They go on to celebrate Dickens, with his strong connections with the town and then in December, they have their Dickens Christmas - complete with carol singing outside the cathedral, snow machine and victorian costumes. I'd recommend all three!

This is from this year's Sweeps:

Get Out Of Debt Now

Recently the papers reported average personal debt in Maidstone was close to £10k (excluding mortgages) - a figure that I find hard to comprehend. Yesterday Mervyn King gave a very bleak forecast for the economy talking about the rising oil and food prices colliding with the credit crunch. House prices are beginning to fall, petrol has risen 18% in the past year and butter 32%. Half a dozen organic free range eggs in Sainsburys costs over £2.00. It is all looking a bit scary...

A couple of years ago I attended a lecture by Paul Mobbs who was discussing the likely exponential rise in oil. He didn't predict food rises, or the credit crunch, but his main advice was to get out of debt asap.

Sound advice, but hard work and it needs sacrifice and time. Most people would baulk at the idea of paying mortgages off over a couple of years - there was a reality TV show a while back showing people trying to do this and it is tough going. Yet, more worrying is the rest of personal debt - how can this be repaid?

With our addition to affluenza we have some form of inbuilt reticence to living within our means and planning for the future. We continue to buy big cars, jet around the world on 3 or 4 holidays and so on. It seems to be changing though... friends are reporting they they are starting to trade their cars in for smaller models and to drive more efficiently, they are starting to turn their thermostats down and so on, but there is a long way to go.

Happy times - not.

But it can be different. Living more lightly, getting to know more about the community, spending more time with family and friends relaxing in the garden, needs to replace endless shopping and weekend breaks in the Med. If you want the Med, try the banks of the Medway - there are some beautiful spots!

Stuart

Election Results

I can't say I wasn't a little disappointed with my result in Fant Ward (16%), however it was good not to lose ground from last year. The ward was very fiercely fought by all four parties - certainly unique in this year's Maidstone elections. This means that the the gap between first and last places was very narrow and the vote evenly split (Con:33%, LibDem:28%, Labour:23% and Green:16%), whereas most wards were won with more than by 50%.

Given Morel was defending his Labour seat and had a high personal vote, some of whom would normally vote Green, we clearly picked up new voters this year which bodes well for next time.

Sadly the Tories won the ward and this defies explanation. They have had a static vote in Fant for the past 4 years, yet they managed to find an extra 250 voters this year. Sure, they have had a national swing, but it should not have happened in Fant. Of course the Lib Dems blame the Greens and Labour for letting the Tory in (surely the only people to blame are those people who voted Tory...).

Across the rest of Maidstone, the Tories also took Shepway South from Labour and now have control of the council. A sad day for Maidstone: more housing growth, more shopping centres, more cars, less cycling, less walking, less local shops and businesses, forget any semblance of social justice, and forget ethics - profits will rule now... and will the plan to put houses over the KIG site be resurrected? Looking at the Bearsted vote, I'm puzzled that such a large number of them voted Tory given the Tory's Core Strategy to surround Bearsted with houses, including building them on the site that KIG are after.

Not that the Lib Dem coalition was that much better, though they were just starting to think about how to start reducing the borough's carbon footprint. Of course they didn't have the ideas / policies to achieve this but at least they had the right goal. They never got their head around the economics of resilience and localism which are essential to both combat peak oil and climate change - and it is peak oil which will hurt us sooner and harder than climate change.

Any way the Lib Dems are still wedded to road building and airport expansion...