Transition, if The Archers can do it, so can Maidstone!

The Transition Culture (also here) has made it onto The Archers.

The Transition Town movement combines the needs of both climate change and peak oil into work to rapidly reduce our dependence on oil and to relocalise our economy to ensure resilience for the future. It is easily the most exciting new movement of recent times and one that needs to be embraced across the planet. A number of us have started a similar (non-political) group in Maidstone (Sustainable Maidstone), but I think it would benefit from going the whole hog into the Transition Movement.

The newly published Transition Handbook arrived last week and I haven't been able to put it down.

Stuart

The Fant Campaign

The campaign for Fant Ward has really kicked off. I've been out all week canvassing and delivering our quarterly newsletter. The response on the doorstep is fantastic, we've worked hard over the past few years and I think it is starting to get results. I got 18% last year in Fant, 50% more than the previous year, which was 50% more than the year before. If I can continue that trend then I should hit 27%, which with the 5 usual candidates could be enough to win.

The main barrier to getting elected as a Green is the concept that we can't win and a Green vote is a wasted vote. This concept no longer applies in Fant Ward and I think that people realise that we are a serious party with serious ideas and have a serious chance of electoral success.

This sea change is noticeable on the doorstep and given the results of canvassing so far, I think that I could exceed 30% which would put me in a great position and with an excellent chance of taking the ward. Who knows, these things are impossible to predict!

The Tory candidate, Stephen Paine has started his campaign too. Morel tells me that he will be standing again for Labour. I'm not sure whether Carol Vizzard will be standing as an independent again and I don't know who the Lib Dem candidate will be, but I guess I'll find out when their newsletter arrives.

It should be an interesting few weeks...

Media and elections

The run up to the local elections on 1st May has truly started. Loads of admin to get through plus the crescendo of activity that builds in the preceding months after the Christmas lull. The local media seem to allow us a fair say in the press which is always welcome, indeed I recorded an online piece for Your Maidstone last week - please watch and vote!

Highlight this month was the live piece on Radio Kent at 5.55pm on KCC's arms investments and Unison calling for an end to the investments.

The low light was missing Saoirse on his pilgrimage round the country. He come through Maidstone on Monday about 6 hours later than planned and I couldn't meet up with him. Fortunately the KM did a great piece on his trek this week.

The campaign in Fant Ward will be close and hard fought and every vote will count. It feels like there is even more support than we had last year. 30% of the vote could win the ward, and having got 18% last year, there is everything to play for.

The Road Lobby in Maidstone

Letter to the KM:

Dear Editor,

I am sure that many of us were humbled by Clare Burtwell's actions to reduce death on our roads, and political parties of all colours should take notice of her pleas. If this many people died each year from other forms of accident, action would have been taken long ago yet, sadly the sanctity of the car is held high by many.

We live in a society that has become completely dependent on cars at the expense of community cohesion, public transport, cycling and walking. We have a road lobby that screams when their freedoms are challenged and we have more roads being promised by LibDems, Tories and Labour alike. Something has to give.

There are far too many cars on our road and they often travel too fast, yet to tackle this we need alternatives to car travel: public transport, safe cycling and walking, local shops and jobs, and strong communities. There are plenty of model towns across Europe and the wider world that provide stunning examples on how to kick the car habit.

With climate change and the price of petrol rising rapidly, alongside the appalling death toll, there has never been a more urgent time to tackle the problems on our roads.

Stuart Jeffery,
Maidstone Green Party
60 Boxley Road
Maidstone
Kent ME14 2TW
07970 436029

Ethical Investments Three

Last night UNISON members at Kent County Council voted to call for ethical investments by the pension fund - a move that I strongly support. Currently KCC have £14m invested in BAE, the fourth largest arms company in the world, £14m in tobacco shares and £91m in oil.

They have issued some rhetoric about having joined a climate change investment group, but this is not backed by policy and KCC continue to say that profits come higher than lives.

I was on Radio Kent last night about this and I gather that it will be featured again this morning. Press release below:

GREENS SUPPORT UNISON BID TO PUSH COUNTY COUNCIL TOWARDS ETHICAL PENSIONS

> Kent Green Party have backed Unison member's calls to provide ethical pensions at Kent County Council.
>
> Stuart Jeffery, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Maidstone and the Weald: "We have spent a long time campaigning against KCC's investment in arms, tobacco and oil and we really welcome this move by Unison members at their AGM to call for ethical pensions to be provided by the council.
>
> "Companies that are involved in the deaths of millions of people should not be supported by governments, however we know that Kent County Council simply wants to put profit before lives. The biggest scandal is easily the £14 million of BAE shares that KCC holds. This company is the fourth largest arms manufacturer in the world and have been accused of a number of illegal deals, the investigations into which are being blocked by central government.
>
> "How any elected representative can support this thoroughly immoral company is beyond me." ENDS