Doom and gloom at the OECD

The latest doom and gloom economic pronouncement from the OECD is hardly surprising. In the past year of crashing economies nothing has been done to address the underlying issues of corporate greed, over consumption, lack of investment in sustainable green collar job, the banking / monetary system and most of all our dependency on finite fossil fuel resources.


The oil price has steadily risen over the last six months to its pre-peak level, a sure sign that the demand / supply gap has closed. I doubt whether the price will rise to its Jun 08 peak any time soon as any rising price of oil will have a negative impact on the rest of the world's economy and as the world economy dives the demand for oil drops along with its price.

All the time we have a world economy predicated on oil, coal and gas, all of which are finite and will therefore fall in supply we will grind along on this long spiral of recession. We need to kick the carbon habit and base our main economic input (energy) on somthing that it a little less finite

8% is obscene

Letter to the Kent Messenger in response to Kent County Councillors giving themselves an 8% allowance rise:

Dear Editor, Our County Councillors ought to be ashamed. To give themselves an 8% rise just a few weeks after being elected, just a few months after they turned their workers down for a cost of living pay rise and just a few months after they lost millions in the Icelandic fiasco is, frankly, obscene.

Personally, I would refuse to take the additional allowance until at least KCC workers had received a cost of living rise. Perhaps if there are any county councillors with a conscience out there they will be giving back this extra money until they have proved to their electorate that they have earned it.

Stuart Jeffery

Maidstone Area Rail Users Group

A new campaign to save the fast Cannon St service from Maidstone has been set up (Keep our Trains) and has now led to the setting up of a rail user group for Maidstone (Maidstone Area Rail Users Group).

There is a No. 10 petition with over 1000 signatures to save the Cannon St service - please add yours!

I have emailed them wishing the luck and offered to support them if I can. Lets hope that Southeastern take notice of them!

Public Whip - Check you MP's voting record

There is a fantastic, but under used resource for tracking what our MPs are up to. Public Whip is a fantastic way of finding out exactly what you MP has been doing. It is especially good for people in Maidstone as we have Ann Widdecombe and the great thing about Ann is that you can't guess which way she will vote on any topic!

For example, she seems to be backing renationalisation of public services, free university education and banning fox hunting (so far so good), while being against gay rights, a climate change denier, in favour of ID cards, against unions, for the Iraq war and against transparency in parliament (hey, didn't she just stand for speaker????).

Obviously my MP is the most interesting one in parliament, so here's the challenge... beat that record! What's your MP been up to?

Policy Comparisons

This chart shows the percentage agreement between this MP and each of the policies in the database, according to their voting record.

Agreement	Policy
95%	Abortion, Embryology and Euthanasia- Against
12%	Alcohol - increase its availability (provisional)
88%	Alcohol - restrict its availability (provisional)
0%	American imperialist hegemony: welcome (provisional)
50%	Asylum seekers: no rights (provisional)
100%	Ban fox hunting
56%	Big Business - against (provisional)
64%	British Humanist (provisional)
38%	Cambridge Liberal Conservative (provisional)
100%	Civil aviation pollution - For limiting
2%	Climate Change Bill - Strengthen
48%	Common Sense Party (provisional)
25%	Control Orders
50%	Corporal punishment of children - Against
50%	Crossrail - In favour
50%	Current Attitudes towards Climate Change (provisional)
0%	Dogs' tails: docking of (provisional)
19%	Educational Reform Rebel (provisional)
50%	Faith schools: abolish (provisional)
4%	Fast-track planning (provisional)
20%	Foundation hospitals - In favour
100%	Fox hunting - Ban
0%	Fox hunting - Don't ban (provisional)
50%	Freedom of Information Bill 2000 - Strengthen
83%	Gambling - Against permissiveness
100%	Hold a UK referendum on Lisbon EU Treaty
1%	Homosexuality - Equal rights
81%	Homosexuality - Not acceptable (provisional)
30%	House of Lords reform - Elected
48%	Identity cards - Against introduction (provisional)
52%	Identity cards - For introduction
78%	Identity Cards - In favour (provisional)
31%	Income Tax - Abolish 10% tax bracket (provisional)
91%	Innocent until proven guilty (provisional)
1%	Iraq 2003 - Against the invasion (provisional)
56%	Iraq 2003 - For disarmament only (provisional)
99%	Iraq 2003 - For the invasion
100%	Iraq 2003 - pro-invasion (provisional)
99%	Iraq Investigation - Necessary
50%	Jury trials: sacrosanct (provisional)
50%	Local Transport Bill 2007-08 (provisional)
5%	Mental health- easier detention + forced treatment (provisional)
95%	Military expansion - Favour (provisional)
21%	No detention without charge or trial
18%	No to ID Cards (provisional)
50%	Nuclear power - For
100%	Outlaw irrelevant clauses (provisional)
3%	Parliamentary scrutiny - Reduce
82%	Parliamentary scrutiny - Strengthen (provisional)
82%	Pay MPs More (provisional)
67%	Pension fund collapse: bail-out (provisional)
4%	Post office - in favour of Government policy
96%	Post office closures - against
50%	Prisons and probation services: Privatise (provisional)
0%	Pro American Pro War and Anti-Euro Party (provisional)
0%	Pro Science and technology (provisional)
61%	Pro-human rights, pro-democracy (provisional)
62%	Pro-Liberty (provisional)
50%	Protesting near Parliament - Unrestricted
87%	Recreational drugs - Against legalization
67%	Referendum on Europe (provisional)
95%	Renationalisation of public services (provisional)
0%	Right to strike (provisional)
33%	Selective schools: abolish (provisional)
19%	Smoking ban - In favour
50%	Socially Free, Economically Free. True Libertarian (provisional)
50%	Stand as an MP based on signatures of support (provisional)
25%	Stop climate change (provisional)
39%	Taxes - Favour decreases (provisional)
50%	Taxes - Favour increases (provisional)
50%	Temporary and agency workers: Equal rights (provisional)
100%	Termination of pregnancy - against
71%	Terrorism laws - Against (provisional)
29%	Terrorism laws - For
100%	The UK should not ratify the Lisbon Treaty
74%	Transexuality - Against legal recognition
18%	Transparency of Parliament
100%	Trident replacement - In favour
58%	Trust schools: For (provisional)
10%	University education fees - For top up fees
90%	University education fees - Should be free
2%	University tuition fees
46%	Vote 'aye' on every division in October 2007 (provisional)
6%	Vote for Radical Change (provisional)
50%	Voting age - Reduce to 16
58%	War - Parliamentary authority not necessary

Conservative Future or Tory Past

The radical new face of the Conservative Future... global warming is a myth, Tories best on social housing, capitalism is king, Caymen Islands have got taxes right for businesses and women should aspire to be mothers.

http://www.dontpaniconline.com/magazine/government/the-new-young-conservatives

I almost thought this was a spoof- sadly it isn't. Conservative Future sounds more like Tory Past.

HT: Sunny Hundal & Rupert Read

p.s. if you want a proper radical future join the Young Greens.

Marden Village Bartering

Last week I was invited to the first meeting of a great new bartering scheme in Marden. I went there with Joan Langrick who is a veteran of bartering and who gave a talk on her past experiences in Wales.

There were around 15 people at the meeting - an impressive number for a first meeting in a relatively small village, however I gather that there are over 70 community groups in Marden so residents are clearly keen on getting involved!

I was a member of Medlets, Medway's LETS scheme, about 15 years ago and it was interesting to hear how the Marden scheme was going to work now that the web has taken over as main administrator, i.e. banker and publicisor, rather that everything having to be done by hand.

I wish Marden every success with this and will keep a close eye on how it develops.

News from Stop KIG

The KIG inquiry is starting on 13th October and will be running for 8 weeks.

Stop KIG are continuing to do a great job at organising the fight to stop this development and they are encouraging as many people as possible to turn up to the inquiry, especially on the first day - so make sure you have booked it off!

Telegraph gets teeth into Widdecombe

The Torygraph have finally got their teeth into Ann Widdecombe:

"The Conservative MP, one of the leading contenders to become Speaker, was sent thousands of articles in which she was named over a four-year period at a cost of 75p each, with deliveries on an almost daily basis."

The bizarre thing is that knowing what the media are writing about you seems to be a reasonable thing to do, I think. It might have saved the taxpayer money if she had used Google alerts (although I'm not sure these were around in 2004), but I don't have much of a problem with this expense.

Why the Telegraph didn't question her voting record on expenses transparency is beyond me though. How can anyone who has voted against making expenses explicit and public put themselves forward as a speaker candidate?

They have also failed to mention the gardening claims that Ann has submitted. While they are not huge, I can't see why taxpayers should have to pay for these. If MPs want the state to pay for a second home then they should choose a small flat.

The same goes for cleaning. Sure, I don't expect MPs to do all their own cleaning if they are working 15 hour days but why should the state pay? This has nothing to do with a second home, they would still need to clean if they lived in one home rather than 2, they certainly would be making more mess by living in two???

Surprise poll result from the Daily Mail

Daily Mail readers seem to have done a U-Turn in the latest online poll: Should the NHS allow gypsies to jump the queue? It seems that 94% of their online readers think they should. Is there hope or did the suggestion on Facebook to join in skew the random sample of DM readers... I wonder? Vote now!

Megaliths in power

I wonder how many people have spent the day pouring over the published expenses? I haven't even glanced at them and I doubt many people outside of the media have either. What the media and the government seem to have forgotten is that the imperative now must be for constitutional reform.

With less than a year to go before the Tories get into power, Labour (and Gordon Brown in particular) seem to be doing nothing to seize the only opportunity for a long time to come to make real improvements to democracy. Brown is going to go down as the worst prime minister in history unless he makes quick bold moves.

Not only will he go down as the worst PM ever, but he will take democracy with him. With the Tories in power the status quo will be maintained. They will make some fluffy changes and spin them as reform but under the surface, greed will rule.

There are so many important changes that must be made to parliament and how we elect it that missing this opportunity is the biggest ever crime against democracy in this country that I can think of. (n.b. I await comments!)

Either Brown must move quickly or Labour must oust him and put a short term reformer in his place. Labour must show that it has got what it takes to make changes when it needs to and it needs to show that NOW!

I don't want Labour in power any more than the Tories. I want Greens in power, but all the time that the UK political system supports two megalithic parties there will be no progress.

Mili-Band

Email from the Campaign against Climate Change:

Join the Mili-Band

Saturday 4th July 2009,

No New Coal at Kingsnorth !

No New Coal without 100% CCS from the start !

Details at www.campaigncc.org/kingsnorth.shtml and below :

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband has invited people to mobilise to demand action on climate change so we are doing just that. On Saturday July 4, thousands of people will come together to form what is being called "the Mili-band" which will be a human chain surrounding Kingsnorth power station in Kent, to renew our demand that no new coal-fired power plant is built here unless it has CCCS working at 100% (or very close) from the start.

Campaign against Climate Change supporters will be meeting at 9.00 -9.15 am at Victoria Station to take the train to Rochester where there will be a shuttle service to join the Miliband at Kingsnorth

After the 'Miliband' itself there will be a big summer fete, with stalls, music and plenty to do for kids - as well as some great speakers. So this will be a family-friendly, fun, event. So bring your family, your friends etc... not to forget outdoor gear (appropriate to the weather), some water and a picnic if you fancy, though there should be some food available

The timetable for the day looks like this :

9.30-11am	Shuttle buses ferry people from Rochester station to the event centre
10-12am	Assembly on site and registration
12-1pm	Groups set off to take up their positions in the Mili-band
1.30pm	Photographs and video of the Mili-band
2pm	Finish and return to events centre
2.30pm	Live music on stage
3.00	Summer fête starts
3pm-5pm	Shuttle buses return people to Rochester station

If you have to come by car you need to park in Rochester and get the shuttle bus because there is no on-site parking for private cars at Kingsnorth For any group hiring their own minibus, please arrive at the Kingsnorth holding site no later than 11.30 (maps available soon). Parking for minibuses must be arranged either by contacting Will Tucker on 0121 634 3611, or emailing him at wtucker@oxfam.org.uk

If you are coming from outside London coaches are being organised by Oxfam from : Birmingham (8am), Bristol (8am), Cardiff (7.30am), Coventry (8am ) and Oxford (9am). You can book a coach place on the Oxfam website here The suggested donation for the return coach journey is £10 per person. Coaches will arrive at Kingsnorth between 10.30am and 11.30am and leave at 4pm.

Remember that this is to show Ed Miliband - and the national media - that the UK won't be able to show real leadership at Copenhagen in December if we are building new coal fired power stations at home.

Letter to KM on 2009 elections

Dear Editor,

While the KM was right to point out the massive rise in the Green vote, for which we thank the public, however the KM did get some of the numbers wrong. The Green Party vote rose by 5500 across Kent in the County elections, despite the far lower turnout. In Maidstone our County Council vote rose from 4.5% in 2005 to 8.5% where we stood.

We did even better in the European elections, polling over 4000 votes across Maidstone (10% of the vote) and we came first in both Brighton and Oxford. We were just 2.5% behind the Lib Dems across the South East and are in line to win seats in the next General Election. I would suggest that the KM's description of us a minor party is no longer true, we are the rapidly growing force in British politics.

Stuart Jeffery
Green Party General Election candidate for Maidstone and the Weald

A picture paints a thousand words

The Wealden Progressive Movement and Stop the War (Tunbridge Wells) are putting on a creative stall in TW tomorrow. This is from them:

A picture paints a thousand words - say yes to all colours and no to the BNP.

Hello Everyone

The hope not hate campaign has seen thousands of pictures submitted in a stand against racism and division. The petition has now been signed by over 60,000 people.

This Saturday we will be holding a creative stall to show that Tunbridge Wells too says 'NO' to racism. We will be encouraging supporters and passers-by to make their own messages to Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons and have their photograph taken holding their work.

We will also collect petition signatures and upload all photos and signatures to the hope not hate campaign site. The BBC are also being invited to cover the event. We are aiming for a group picture with a few dozen people too.

If you'd like to come and help out, or show off your creative flare then we will be at the Millennium Clock from 10:15 on Saturday.

Many Thanks

Stopwar/wealdenprogress

Reflections on a busy week

With the election over many of us get interested in the numbers, size of vote and so on. Steve Dawe has put out the Kent votes for the Greens on our news blog. Even at borough level there are some really great stories to tell, such as Thanet getting 17% and Canterbury with 16%, both beating Labour and the Lib Dems.

Most places across Kent beat either Lab or LD and Maidstone was no different, we beat Labour.

	No. votes	No. voters	2009	2004
Green	4019	41276	9.7%	6.8%
Lab	2590	41276	6.3%	14.5%
LibDem	6823	41276	16.5%	15.5%
Con	14753	41276	35.7%	37.3%
UKIP	8169	41276	19.8%	19.8%

The County elections were also a useful testbed for support and while we didn't expect to win any here yet we were delighted with the 13% we received in Rural South and the 11% in Maidstone Central masked the very high level of Green support in Fant that we saw.

This is all great news for us and we will continue to campaign across the town and we will bring Maidstone a Green councillor very soon!

Poverty and expenses - Labour's record

The real state of Britain today rarely makes headlines. The Guardian has just run a story about the increasing poverty gap in this country showing that the poverty gap is greater now than at any point since records began in the 1960's. Most concerning is child poverty...

From the Guardian: "About 15% of pupils in state schools are now entitled to free school meals because their parents receive welfare payments or earn below £15,575 a year, the figures show. Last year, 14.5% of pupils were eligible."

Trying to survive on less than £16k as a family is extremely tough and, frankly, I simply don't know how I could do it. Labour's spin about tax credits is being shown to be just that, what we need is a non-means tested citizen's income coupled with redistributive taxes (personally I favour a maximum wage too!).

Yesterday I watched a government ad / info piece on how they are cracking down on benefit fraudsters. While it is all very well them to want to crack down on people defrauding the system, as the poverty gap grows what do they expect people to do, tug their forelocks? I'm not condoning fraud, but Labour need to understand people's needs and stop pandering to the rich.

They should also remember that former Work and Pensions Secretary, James Purnell who resigned last week, claimed £25o on fridge magnets. £250 is about the same as a month's dole money.

Those in power need to have an insight into what it means to live in today's world. When I get elected to parliament I intend to take the national average wage. That is not to say that I don't think the job is important and should attract a reasonable wage, just that I think that the average wage should be reasonable and liveable.

Maidstone Green Party results 2009

An amazing result for us in last Thursday's election. We almost doubled our share of the vote compared to the previous county election in 2005, going from 4.5% of the vote to 8.5% this year. We also came in ahead of Labour and the National Front. Of course UKIP got a higher percentage where they stood, but then they are a single issue party and their issue was the EU vote on the same day.

Across the country we made good gains with the Norwich election machine returning an extra 5 county councillors there plus other breakthroughs elsewhere. One day very soon...

Results below... remember there were two seats in central and there are a few ways of calculating the percentages for multi-member divisions!

	Voters	Green	Lab	Con	LibDem	UKIP	NF	Ind	Votes	Green%	Turn Out
Central	26652	908	603	2507	4465	1274			17292	10.5%	32.4%
Central		761	568	2457	3749					8.8%
North East	12379	260		1159	2306	656			4381	5.9%	35.4%
Rural East	13058		479	3963	925				5367		41.1%
Rural North	14044	352	397	3078	668	818			5313	6.6%	37.8%
Rural South	10661	554		2595	1027				4176	13.3%	39.2%
Rural West	13411	397	300	2559	1467	825			5548	7.2%	41.4%
South	12325	305	341	1897	1222		231	282	4278	7.1%	34.7%
South East	8418	159	452	1297	422			90	2420	6.6%	27.7%

Vote Green Today!!!

This is it, time to vote Green!

The polls have swung towards us, people on the street are supporting us, let's hope we get plenty of MEPs and local councillors elected today. The polls have been excellent, a ComRes poll that was commission by the party and published yesterday, showed support as follows: CON 24%: LAB 22%: LDEM 14%, UKIP 17%: Green 15%: BNP 2%. The fight is for 3rd place!

Maidstone Greens have delivered more leaflets that we care to think about, knocked on more doors than ever as well as campaigning on Week St. The coverage in yesterday's 'Your Maidstone' was a real boost too.

The results for Kent County Council elections will be known on Friday and the Euros are counted on Sunday.