Being Green - #MyManifesto week three

Don't throw your love away - Love not Litter
My local rant about the weekend litter around the bins on Mersea has received more views, to date, than all the previous blogs below [read more]
Be Ye Transformed - Rich but not Wealthy  Part Two of my previous day's post as we still consider the ramifications of the forthcoming snap election whilst in the throes of challenging for the local county council elections [read more]

Equality not Inequality - Looking Through You
A reaction to the news of the snap election focusing on how inequality blights this country and increases poverty [read more]

What is Normal? Discover not Dismiss
Celebrating the diversity of the human condition. Therefore relishing campaigning for more support for those that need to rely on extra care - whether from disability, illness, old age or dementia and championing the many Guardian Angels in our midst [read more]


and from:
Being Green - #MyManifesto week two

Welcome not Waiting - transforming finances...
A criticism levied at political parties when they criticise a rampant austerity policy is “how will you pay for everything?”. For the Green Party some major contributions to the public purse seem all too obvious with the response “stop commissioning white elephants”! [read more]
Homes not Houses - Wherever I lay my hat, that's my home...
It seems every hamlet, town, village and city is under pressure to accept unsustainable housing quotas. The Green vision is for the creation of affordable, energy efficient homes rather than comply with excessive, energy hungry property developments. [read more]

Health not Wealth - Song for Nye
We need to recapture the vision of Nye Bevan and restore the NHS to its rightful place of a fully funded public service to all rather than a creeping privatisation primarily serving shareholders. It is abundantly clear the NHS needs substantial investment and appears to be feared by some members of the current government. [read more]

Trust not Terror - Mersea Island beach hut fire... My short report and photographs from the morning after. I support our police, military and emergency services receiving extra funding rather than the crippling budget cuts they are enduring. How much better would it be if our communities and the true public servants felt secure and valued? [read more]


and from:
Being Green - #MyManifesto week one

May the Fourth be with you...
One month until May the Fourth be with you when it will be: Essex County Council elections day too! [read more]

Travel not Traffic
The Green vision is to re-vitalise and re-own public transport as well as encouraging cycling and walking. Problems of congestion and parking are simply caused by too greater dependence on private cars and the more on the road the greater the air pollution. [read more]

Nature not Nuclear
Old nuclear has served its time but left a dangerous and lengthy legacy of radioactive waste. It is urgent and essential to invest in developing renewable technologies for the future of our country and planet. [read more]

Respect not Reject

In these politically turbulent times politically we need to be a country that offers empathy toward those who suffer from the terror of trafficking and war.

P

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Promoted by Robbie Spence on behalf of Peter Banks, both of 124 Morant Road, Colchester CO1 2JD

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Don't throw your love away - Love not Litter

I find it very difficult to be positive about litter! So, instead, I decided to respond to plenty of online ire about the litter near me on Coast Road, signed up to be one of Colchester Borough's Litter Warriors team and get my hands (well, gloves!) dirty. Now this is not a pleasant job at all but, as the saying goes, someone needs to do it otherwise, overnight, the seagulls and foxes transform the adjacent landscape into a piece of kinetic modern art worthy of display in the turbine hall at Tate Modern (just jokin').
I perceive there has been a cultural change in the attitudes towards litter in that there is a responsibility to want to dispose of litter but at the expense of abandoning the better practice of taking it home and, if no space left in the bin, piling it up alongside for volunteers, like yours truly, to clear up.

I'm not sure if there is an easy answer as it seems to be that piling it up is preferable to discarding anywhere. It begs the question: would removing bins make it worse or would that force folk to take their waste home? What I can say authoritatively is that the Island's food vendors must look beyond their forecourts to see how much the bulk of their boxes, rather than simple (news)paper wrapping, causes the bins to overflow far too quickly. Show responsibility where it is clearly due, please. I must stress that West Mersea Town Council is mindful of these issues and has recently changed the process around bin emptying. This has moved responsibility onto Colchester Borough's contractors and, since that contract commenced this April, has worked well. The exception was the incredibly mild and sunny weekend a couple of weeks ago, I collected 9 bags in total, 2 on the Saturday and 7 Sunday, just from the mess around the bin at Monkey Steps and the two bins by the Boardwalk... Rant over, to be continued! P

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Promoted by Robbie Spence on behalf of Peter Banks, both of 124 Morant Road, Colchester CO1 2JD

Be Ye Transformed - Rich but not Wealthy...

This is a quick Part Two from my post yesterday as we still consider the ramifications of the forthcoming snap election whilst in the throes of challenging for the local county council elections.

The religious folk will appreciate the first part of the title above comes from the Bible (Romans chapter 12) and the section I refer to is "be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind". Generally a lot of religious activity is perceived as 'mindless', whether that be repeating the same words week on week or in a violent response. Yet what this is saying is contrary, start thinking differently, don't go with the status quo, refresh the grey matter...

The second half of the title is a comment I heard from a First Nation Indigenous Native Tribal Chief living in what we call North America. The context was an interview with a tribal chief about the financial prospects within his reservation where a restriction was about to be lifted which would yield an exclusive revenue stream. The interviewer suggested that these folk would now 'become rich' and the wise response was "we've always been rich, just not wealthy". The reason it stuck with me is because of equating both the word "rich" and "wealthy" with money was a narrow perception. We can now also see to be rich can actually have a much wider meaning to do with history, culture and knowledge.

So where am I going with this?

I very much see the Green Party is able to fulfil and match these points because it thinks differently:

• Whilst employment figures are needed, contentment in employment is more important.
• National security should not be defended by an out of date (and probably faulty) nuclear deterrent but rather by, as a minimum, equipping our armed forces with appropriate protective wear and by recruiting more police.
• Our Benefits system could be completely overhauled by implementing a Citizen's Income model.
• Our public transport systems can be revitalised by cancelling the ridiculous HS2 project and returning services to public ownership where we can share the profits.
• Instead of planning for more traffic we need to switch to zero emission vehicles and reduce car ownership. This will protect urban and rural air quality.
• Our investment into the NHS has to increase massively, even if it means a tiny, negligible increase in taxation along with marrying both health and social care.
• Scrap plans for Hinkley Point C, Sizewell C and Bradwell B. Within the renewable energy sector invest in energy reduction, community energy and energy storage systems... creates plenty of jobs!

(watch this space - I will probably add to this!)

P

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Promoted by Robbie Spence on behalf of Peter Banks, both of 124 Morant Road, Colchester CO1 2JD

Equality not Inequality - Looking through you...

So we've had the announcement, confirming some rumours late in 2016, just when you thought it was time to draw breath, another election, this time, the big one! Of course, it means all the non-in-power parties have to rush around with just a few weeks to make their pitches. It is unlikely the polls will be massively incorrect this time, so the outcome is both a foregone conclusion and challenging.

Here, on Mersea Island, during the 2015 hustings held in the local parish church there was a question about Food Banks. Bernard Jenkin (Conservative) answered the question with a flourish of positivity suggesting that Food Banks were wonderful and to be applauded. Apart from the resulting derision from the assembled masses two things stuck in my mind. Firstly was the extent to which he completely misgauged how to approach an answer and secondly how he refused to see there was even one speck of responsibility of the (then) Coalition Government's austerity measures.

Inequality blights this country and whilst I do not for one minute imagine society all at the same level I absolutely believe a more equitable one can exist. And where this has been achieved in other countries their world is better with better employment, lifestyle and minimal crime. The Green Party has positive ideas to move towards this goal and I applaud its vision.

P

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Promoted by Robbie Spence on behalf of Peter Banks, both of 124 Morant Road, Colchester CO1 2JD

What is Normal? Discover not Dismiss...

Back in the early noughties I attended an inspiring and prophetic lecture by Peter Cochrane, a technical futurologist, who laid out some predictions. The significant core of his presentation was how the public would research less and less using reference books / papers and, instead, would seek information predominantly online using Wikipedia pages and search engine results.

Roll forward to today, 15 years on, and we have seen the emergence of the expression 'Alternative Facts' referring to a piece of false propaganda. Beyond this we have seen the use of online health diagnosis tools to such an extent that it seems we can decide nearly everyone is afflicted by some obscure condition or another.

So, surely the question "what is normal" is somewhat obtuse?

In the past, folk with an apparent mental illness, including stress disorders attributed to military service plus those on the Autistic Spectrum were often banished to institutions into living conditions that would now be considered appalling.

Right now, and speaking from personal experience, I want to celebrate the diversity of the human condition. Therefore I relish campaigning for more support for those that need to rely on extra care - whether from disability, illness, old age or dementia and championing the many Guardian Angels in our midst.

P

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Promoted by Robbie Spence on behalf of Peter Banks, both of 124 Morant Road, Colchester CO1 2JD

Bradwell B: expensive, dangerous, unnecessary

The Blackwater Against New Nuclear Group (BANNG)

will hold an

Open Meeting on 25 April at 7.30 pm

at

United Reform Church Hall, Market Hill, Maldon CM9 4PZ

(parking at central White Horse Lane or Butt Lane public car parks, £1 in evenings)

A new nuclear power station
at Bradwell – expensive,
dangerous and unnecessary

Speakers

Prof. Stephen Thomas, University of Greenwich, Expert in Energy Policy Prof. Andy Blowers, OBE, Open University, Chair of BANNG, author of The Legacy of Nuclear Power (2017) Prof. Keith Barnham, Nuclear & Solar Physicist, Imperial College London, author of The Burning Answer: A User’s Guide to the Solar Revolution (2015)

There will also be a Question and Answer session.